PETALING JAYA: Medical helicopters alone will not enhance Malaysia’s emergency service if there are not enough professional paramedics, said St John Ambulance Malaysia (SJAM) commander-in-chief Datuk Dr Low Bin Tick.
“It is not just about acquiring the hardware. If we do not have specially-trained and qualified paramedics, more helicopters or ambulances would not make a difference in saving lives,” he said.
He urged the Government to have more job opportunities for paramedics in government hospitals after they have completed their pre-hospital programmes.
On Nov 30, it was reported that Malaysia was enhancing its emergency response service, to include the use of medical helicopters to evacuate patients in critical condition in a disaster situation.
Kuala Lumpur Hospital emergency and trauma department head Prof Datuk Dr Abu Hassan Asaari Abdullah who is also Malaysian Society of Traumatology and Emergency Medicine president, said the proposed integrated emergency response service would include having five such helicopters each in Sabah and Sarawak and five each in the northern, central and southern zones of the peninsula.
Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Dr David Quek said the plan might not be very viable.
“There might be a problem finding a place to land the helicopters and it could be quite costly to maintain them,” he said.
He suggested the Government invest in developing more trained paramedics and adopt the motorcycle ambulance system, like in Thailand, to reach to patients in time to stabilise and resuscitate them especially during traffic jams.
Dr Low added SJAM had started a Diploma in Pre-Hospital programme with the Open University Malaysia in the beginning of this year but only received 10 students for the first batch.
SJAM’s chief training officer Datuk Dr Lee Hoo Teong said pre-hospital programmes were not a popular choice.
“Emergency rescue training is not emphasised when training medical assistants.
“The training is crucial to enable paramedics to make on-the-spot decisions in a calm manner during urgent situations.
“For every one minute a person is not resuscitated, the person has a 10% less chance of surviving,” said Dr Lee.
The Star
16/12/2010
