Red Crescent: Our ambulances are efficient

Red Crescent: Our ambulances are efficient

Jared Pereira

January 21, 2013 http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2013/01/21/red-crescent-our-ambulances-are-efficient/

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Red Crescent (MRCS) insists that its ambulance service is top notch despite claims by a consumer association that ambulance services were in a depolarable state.


Consumer Association of Subang and Shah Alam (Cassa) president Jacob George claimed last week that Malaysian ambulance service providers lacked quality and the medical staff were unprofessional.

“Many of the ambulances which attend to emergencies are not properly equipped and the medical aides on duty show a lack of knowledge when treating patients,” he said.

But MRCS ambulance manager, Shamsiah Ahadir, refuted his claims by stating that MRCS applies the highest standards of practice in emergency situations and are dependable.

“I can’t speak on behalf of other [ambulance] providers but as far as I know, we [MRCS] are well equipped and our medical aides are extremely qualified,” she said.

Shamsiah, who is also MRCS acting director for emergency operations, also said that George’s claims were too “general”.

“We have all the basic amenities besides emergency equipment to provide proper life support to patients in crisis situations,” she said.

She said that all MRCS ambulances have two qualified ambulance medical aides and basic life support equipment such as oxygen cylinders, spinal boards, cervical collars, among others.

When asked about the recent case of a man who died due to poor service from an ambulance provider, Shamsiah said: “Such cases are few and far in between but nevertheless it should not happen and it’s saddening.”

In a recent interview, George claimed that of the 900 complaints that Cassa has received the past three years, the bulk of it involved the quality of treatment provided, the quality of medical personnel on duty and the time taken for ambulances to arrive.