Speaking to FMT, Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah said the supply of ambulances had simply not been enough to keep up with the surge in Covid-19 cases in the Klang Valley.
Maria noted how massive apartment complexes, such as the Mentari Court, which houses around 17,000 residents, were placed under lockdown due to a spike in cases in the housing area.
“We’re not happy that the ministry has not thought this through. There’re not enough ambulances and transporters in PJ now,” she told FMT.
“So many people are being quarantined, but if they develop symptoms and need to go to hospital, who dares to ferry them?
“We have to call the hotlines to ask for help. I don’t want to risk my staff or volunteers, many of them aren’t even vaccinated yet.”
In a statement today, Petaling Jaya city councillor Bryan Ng Yih Miin also highlighted the same issue, saying he had received four distress calls over the past week from Petaling Jaya residents who were Covid-19-positive and in desperate need of transport to hospital.
“They all called 112 and 999. To their dismay, they were told that either there were no ambulances available or that the emergency officer did not think the situation fell within the definition of an ’emergency’,” he said.
A lawyer by training, Ng said the shortage proved that Putrajaya had failed to properly make use of the powers granted to it under the Emergency Ordinance, which came into effect in January and allows the government to utilise private resources in the battle against Covid-19.
He also said the health ministry should make use of emergency response vehicles from other departments and convert them into temporary ambulances.
Besides redeploying unused ambulances from less affected areas, Maria and Ng also proposed that the government utilise shuttles and school buses to ferry Covid-19 patients, like in the UK and Singapore.
He added that for all the suggestions of utilisation of resources, the government should provide reasonable compensation to the affected companies.
“The government should not fear enforcing its powers under the Emergency Ordinance if it wants to save lives,” he said.
“It would be greatly justified and understood by the people. The lives of Malaysians should not be sacrificed in vain due to the inability or reluctance of the government in resolving these issues promptly.”
Klang MP Charles Santiago also spoke out about the shortage earlier this week, stating that more than 30 families had reached out to him for help in transporting their Covid-19 positive family members to hospital due to a lack of ambulances.
Speaking to FMT, he related how one family called for an ambulance for two straight days, but “it never turned up”.
He called on the health minister to urgently source for more ambulances and work on a rapid system where paramedics can arrive within 30 minutes.