The Government should privatise its emergency ambulance service at its hospitals and allow non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to take over the service to save costs. St John Ambulance of Malaysia commander-in-chief Datuk Dr Low Bin Tick said both the Government and the people stood to gain from the privatisation.
He pointed out that many hospitals lacked the staff to man their own emergency ambulance service, prompting them to turn to private ambulance services or NGOs.
Citing an example, he said that St John Ambulance had been running the emergency ambulance service for Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital for three years.
In exchange for RM130,000 a year, the organisation provided two ambulances and full-time staff, and paid for their own fuel and maintenance costs, said Dr Low.
He added that in Sabah, St John Ambulance had also been running the ambulance service for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital because the hospital’s own ambulances had broken down.
“The Government will find it much more economical and I don’t think the ambulance charges will go up if they were to privatise the service
“In fact, we charge half of what private ambulance service providers charge,” he said after St John Ambulance’s central area annual parade in Ipoh recently.
As a non-profit organisation, any money made would be channelled back into the service, said Dr Low.
He noted that he had first broached the idea to Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai in June when the latter launched the organisation’s 100th year commemorative coins.
Dr Low believed that the organisation, with its fleet of 90 ambulances operating on standby nationwide, had the experience and training to respond effectively during emergencies.
TheStar North 5 August 2008
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