Wong said the flying doctor service would involve five villages in Kota Marudu, namely Kampung Sonsogon Makatol; Kampung Sonsogon Mogis; Kampung Sonsogon Suyad; Kampung Binantungan Suyad; and Kampung Minsusurud.

Apart from that, he said three villages in Nabawan (Kampung Kabu; Kampung Sililiran; and Kampung Karampalon); two villages in Tuaran (Kampung Talungan and Kampung Bambangan Ulu) as well as Kampung Longkogugan in Penampang will also enjoy the service.

“The service will be a big boost to the health of villagers,” he said when winding up for his ministry at the Sabah assembly here today.

He said apart from the flying doctor service, another health service using helicopters in Sabah is the Medical Evacuation Service (Medevac), which sends patients from health facilities to the nearest referral hospital.

He said a sum of RM4.46 million had been spent to transfer 269 patients from district hospitals to referral hospitals in Sabah using Medevac from September 2017 until October this year.

In this regard, Wong said the flying doctor service, which was terminated in 2016, was in the process of resuming next year.

While waiting for the new contract, health services for a large portion of the villages is through mobile clinic teams which travel by land or river.

He said from the 60 villages visited by flying doctors earlier, 52 villages were visited by mobile clinic units by land or river now.

tags: Sabah, flying doctor, service, resume,