Daro Hospital cries out loud for ambulance

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The chartered van is not designed for transporting patients, and the space inside the van is small.

DARO Hospital had three ambulances but for the past four months, we have to charter commercial vans, or ‘van sapu’, to send patients to Sibu Hospital as the three ambulances have malfunctioned and cannot be repaired.

This problem has been there for the past two years. We were promised new ambulances since a year ago but until now, there is nothing. Those three ambulances are already old and the hospital has already requested for new ambulances from the Healthy Ministry and the Health Department but to no avail.

The ambulances broke down almost every day until four months ago when they were unable to be repaired any longer. They should have been replaced when they started to malfunction, not until they were completely unable to be repaired. Instead, we were given a new hearse (Van Jenazah) and a Toyota Fortuner vehicle for official use but no ambulance. We know that nearby hospitals such as Mukah Hospital has brand new ambulances.

So, for the past four months, we were forced to charter commercial van and boat to transfer patients to Sibu Hospital, which takes about three hours on bad road conditions. We have also requested to borrow ambulances from nearby hospitals like Sibu Hospital, but, until now, there is nothing. Daro Hospital is a small district hospital without any specialists and what we can do here is limited, so some patients need to be transferred to Sibu Hospital for further treatment.

What are the problems?

1. Commercial vans or boats are not designed to transport patients. There is no power supply inside as some of the equipment need constant electric supply like blood pressure monitoring, IV drip machine and suction machine.

2. The commercial van driver is not trained to transport patients compared to ambulance drivers, who have undergone some courses like defensive driving.

3. Most of the time, it takes time to find an available commercial van, and there is a delay in transferring patients to Sibu Hospital. In fact, there was a time where there was no commercial van available, and we had to charter ambulances from Rejang Medical Centre or KPJ Sibu Specialist. In cases like this, there will be a significant delay in transferring patients because it takes three hours from Sibu to Daro and another three hours from Daro to Sibu, so patients will only arrive at Sibu Hospital after six hours.

4. What if those commercial vans get involved in an accident? Remember that those commercial vans are not public or government transport. Is their life guaranteed in case of an accident? There will be doctors, nurses and medical officers inside the van to accompany the patient – what will happen to them?

5. There is no bed inside the van, unlike in an ambulance. It is very uncomfortable for the patient and the space inside the van is small.

6. The chartered van does not have a siren and it gets very hard during emergencies and traffic jams, and we have to wait just like everyone else.

Truthfully,

Concerned Citizen

Chartered van, unlike proper ambulance, does not have power supply, which is crucial for equipment such as blood pressure monitoring or IV drip machines.