KOTA KINABALU: Patients will soon benefit from an ambulance service set up by the KK Lions Ambulance Service Society Sabah (LASS).
Immediate Past District Governor 2010-2011 of Lions Club of Tanjung Aru, Karen Koh Eng Yan, said the service would start in a few months’ time upon the delivery of the ambulance.
She added the service would begin with transferring patients during office hours by trained staff.
“Also in our plan is to expand our service beyond the working hours and increase to two units of ambulance after we have achieved solid footing in terms of logistics and manpower training,” she said at a press conference yesterday.
Koh added the LASS was approved by Registrar of Societies (ROS) on May 6 this year and would be operating from its office at the Sabah Kidney Centre near Dah Yeh Villa.
“In view of the shortage of ambulance in Kota Kinabalu and the West Coast of Sabah, Lion members from Kota Kinabalu and surrounding areas have come together to form an ambulance service centre as a long-term community service to complement the ambulance service provided by the government and NGOs,” she explained.
Apart from the financial support from 12 Lions Clubs in Kota Kinabalu and surrounding areas through fund-raising events, she said the Society received US$23,000 from the Lions Club International Foundation.
“The money will be used to purchase a fully-equipped ambulance, which costs around RM160,000.”
She urged the Lions Club members to give their support and assistance in helping the people in need.
“We also appeal to the public, corporate bodies and organizations to support our programme to enable us to deliver service to the communities.”
Among the objectives of setting up LASS are to provide transportation for patients in need to treatment centres, to organize first aid training for the public in collaboration with other organizations and to provide mobile healthcare service in rural areas.
The first LASS annual general meeting will be held on July 29.
Lions Clubs International first vice president Dr Tam Wing Kun, who specially flew in from Hong Kong, commended the Lions Clubs for helping the commmunites.
He hoped the Lions Clubs here would work with their counterparts in Hong Kong in the future in order to exchange ideas, share experience and also apply funding from the Lions Club International Foundation.
Tam also emphasized on the power of ‘we’, stressing the importance of a concerted effort from individuals.
“There is a saying, if we look at a drop of water from the sky, you think that’s only a drop of water. But after consolidating a lot of water, it became a small stream, then from a stream to a river, and from a river to the ocean. When you look at the ocean, don’t forget it starts from a drop of water.”
He donated US$500 on the spot to LASS to show his support to the cause.
Tainan West Lions Club president Huang Gung Teh and another member Ong also donated US$1,000 and 10,000 Taiwanese dollars to the SKS.
Also present were council chairman from Lions Club District 308 (Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore) Wong Chang Wai, founder and medical consultant of SKS Dr Wah Hai Sit and SKS vice chairman Chung Kee Hung.