KOTA KINABALU, May 6 — Sabah Health director Datuk Dr Rose Nani Mudin urged cooperation from members of the public to provide complete information when making an emergency call so that the responders at the hospitals in Sabah can act at a reasonable rate.
She said the Sabah Health Department (JKNS) was always committed to ensuring that services and treatment delivery were at the best level, especially in efforts to save lives.
Commenting on the issue of delay in sending an ambulance which was raised in a local newspaper on May 5, she said that the department had conducted an investigation by examining real-time data in the Malaysian Emergency Response Services 999 (MERS 999) database.
“The investigation found that MERS 999 had received a phone call at 12.06 pm from a caller, but the line was disconnected during the connecting process from MERS 999 Regional Centre to Queen Elizabeth Hospital Medical Emergency Call Centre (MECC) for the case verification and to obtain more information,” she said in a statement here today.
Dr Rose Nani said a total of six attempts to call the caller were made by the Regional Centre and MECC from 12.07 pm to 12.19 pm but failed, causing the ambulance could not be deployed due to unclear information on the location.
“At 1.01 pm, MERS 999 received a second call from another caller with complete information obtained. The responder team from Queen Elizabeth II Hospital was activated at 1.04 pm and arrived at the scene at 1.16 pm.
“Upon arriving at the scene, the responder team found the 54-year-old patient had no signs of life and confirmation of death was made by a medical officer,” she added.