Jamilah (sixth left) flashes a thumbs-up together with other medical staff at the unveiling of the pioneer project.
KUCHING: Starting January next year, the Sarawak State Health Department will be the first in Malaysia to deploy their medical personnel to the scene of an emergency using motorcycles.
For the first phase of this pioneer project, one motorcycle equipped with basic medical supplies will be sent to the Sarawak General Hospital, Sibu Hospital and Miri Hospital each.
“This project is aimed to further improve the response time of our medical personnel to an emergency,” said Sarawak Health Department director Dr Jamilah Hashim in a statement today.
Once a call is received by the Medical Emergency Coordinating Centre or 999, these first responders are expected to reach the scene much quicker to perform first-aid on the victim.
“An ambulance will follow suit if the victims need to be sent to the hospital,” she added.
She also hoped that with this pioneer project, the department will be able to improve the quality of their pre-hospital medical care service.
The department will also propose to add more motorcycles to the three major hospitals and expand the project to other districts by gauging the success of the project in this first phase.