Unfortunately “What You See, Is Not What You Get” is the case with ambulances that are purchased to safe lives in Malaysia . While the Sec-Gen’s report in the The Star, on the 10th Sept mentioned about poor conditions of ambulances and its equipments already in service in the country and the Ministry of Health reported on the 11th Sept that the old ambulances will be replaced in stages, I would like to divert your attention to the process of purchasing the ambulance and how the government is cheated into accepting less than the intended purchase.
Ambulance suppliers use a show room model to introduce their products to the interested customer. The show room model has the highest vehicle specification including safety features such as Air Bags, ABS Brakes, Auxiliary Batteries and installed with the necessary medical equipment and fittings.
A basic ambulance may have many purpose built parts and medical equipments. No proper documented specification or list of equipment is made available during the preview of the vehicles. If there is any documentation, it will contain very basic details. The potential buyer only receives the complete list of specification on a later date and is not compared to the show room model. Upon confirmation of purchase the ambulances would be delivered between a minimum periods of 6 to 12 months.
By the time the intended purchase is delivered, the specs and the list of equipments would have been changed. This is not easily recognized as an ambulance comprises of many parts and equipment.
To avoid detection in the discrepancies in the vehicle specification and purchased equipment, delivery is sometimes split to two or more dates and this is done without fear as it’s a know fact that the officers involved in receiving the good will not thoroughly check the list before signing acceptance of goods supplied.
There are ambulances purchased by the Ministry of Health which were supplied with expired medications and short supplied with equipments such as the ones that were supposed to be installed with two batteries, a standard and an auxiliary in case the standard battery fails, but only one battery was supplied and yet they were accepted.
There were also ambulances supplied to the Ministry of Health which were supposed to be installed with ABS braking as a safety feature but supplied with standard braking system and again accepted without question.
In August last year a “Safety Driving” course for vehicles with ABS was organized by a automotive manufacturer for a particular model of its van which is one of the preferred ambulance conversion chassis. All the hospitals that had purchased this particular model of ambulance were invited to attend the ABS Safety Training. But only upon arriving at the training site, these ambulances were found to be supplied without ABS braking system. But the drivers were allowed to attend the training session anyway, without realizing the possible danger of wrongly applying ABS braking techniques on a vehicle installed with Non-ABS brakes. Now why wouldn’t ambulances crash? ABS braking is totally different from Non-ABS Braking.
I agree with the AG that the Health Ministry should look into these matters very seriously so that Pre-Hospital Care Ambulance services can be rendered safely and the negative image of the service improved.
Ambulance suppliers use a show room model to introduce their products to the interested customer. The show room model has the highest vehicle specification including safety features such as Air Bags, ABS Brakes, Auxiliary Batteries and installed with the necessary medical equipment and fittings.
A basic ambulance may have many purpose built parts and medical equipments. No proper documented specification or list of equipment is made available during the preview of the vehicles. If there is any documentation, it will contain very basic details. The potential buyer only receives the complete list of specification on a later date and is not compared to the show room model. Upon confirmation of purchase the ambulances would be delivered between a minimum periods of 6 to 12 months.
By the time the intended purchase is delivered, the specs and the list of equipments would have been changed. This is not easily recognized as an ambulance comprises of many parts and equipment.
To avoid detection in the discrepancies in the vehicle specification and purchased equipment, delivery is sometimes split to two or more dates and this is done without fear as it’s a know fact that the officers involved in receiving the good will not thoroughly check the list before signing acceptance of goods supplied.
There are ambulances purchased by the Ministry of Health which were supplied with expired medications and short supplied with equipments such as the ones that were supposed to be installed with two batteries, a standard and an auxiliary in case the standard battery fails, but only one battery was supplied and yet they were accepted.
There were also ambulances supplied to the Ministry of Health which were supposed to be installed with ABS braking as a safety feature but supplied with standard braking system and again accepted without question.
In August last year a “Safety Driving” course for vehicles with ABS was organized by a automotive manufacturer for a particular model of its van which is one of the preferred ambulance conversion chassis. All the hospitals that had purchased this particular model of ambulance were invited to attend the ABS Safety Training. But only upon arriving at the training site, these ambulances were found to be supplied without ABS braking system. But the drivers were allowed to attend the training session anyway, without realizing the possible danger of wrongly applying ABS braking techniques on a vehicle installed with Non-ABS brakes. Now why wouldn’t ambulances crash? ABS braking is totally different from Non-ABS Braking.
I agree with the AG that the Health Ministry should look into these matters very seriously so that Pre-Hospital Care Ambulance services can be rendered safely and the negative image of the service improved.
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