SIBU: Flying doctors have certainly done wonders to folk staying in far-flung villages beyond the reach of cars and boats.
This is because the pockets of population scattered across the vast terrain of Sarawak have their health screened regularly by these medical practitioners who are flown from towns.
State Health Department director Datu Dr Zulkifli Jantan said the three bases for flying doctors were in Kuching, Sibu and Miri.
He said, running on a tight schedule, the three full-time teams of flying doctors had to cover 117 locations in various parts of the state.
“This means that each base is assigned to cover about 40 locations, necessitating them to cover two locations in a day,” Dr Zulkifli said, adding that this was equivalent to about 20 workdays in a month.
Flying doctors, he explained, covered areas not accessible by land and river.
For areas accessible by land or river transport, he said other mobile medical teams would come in to provide healthcare services to the rural folk.
“There are 107 teams, which don’t include the flying doctors.”
Dr Zulkifli also said volunteers would serve as health workers to assist in providing medical services to the people in their own villages.
He noted although it was difficult for them to increase the frequency of visits to the hinterlands, given the higher transportation cost, they were continuously expanding their services to rural areas.
He also said poor patients could request for transport assistance on discharge from hospitals.