This study provided data by a simple method of acquiring information related to ambulance response time (ART) and determined whether it met the international standards of ART. Additionally, this paper also compared the duration of ART at this hospital before and after the implementation of an Emergency Medical Dispatcher (EMD) program. The ART, which started when details like phone number of the caller, exact location of the incident and the nature of the main complaint were received and ended when the emergency team arrived at the scene of the incident. The parameters recorded include call processing time, time taken to prepare the team and time taken to travel to the scene. The results of the study revealed that the ART for the university hospital (HUSM) was at 913.2 +/- 276.5 seconds (mean +/- SD) and it was far below the international standard of ART as a benchmark of a good ambulance service. However, the study suggested that the EMD program that was recently implemented at the HUSM gave a significantly improvement to the ART score.
The Obstetric Flying Squad (OFS) has been operating in Peninsular Malaysia for over three decades. In the light of current controversies regarding its role in modern day obstetric practice, its status in Malaysia over the last 12 years is reviewed.
Matched MeSH terms: Air Ambulances/organization & administration*
Once a very slowly developing country in a Southeast Asia region, Malaysia has undergone considerable change over the last 20 years after the government changed its focus from agriculture to developing more industry and technology. The well-known "Vision 2020," introduced by the late Prime Minister, set a target for the nation to be a developed country in the Asia region by the year 2020. As the economy and standard of living have improved, the demand from the public for a better health care system, in particular, emergency medical services (EMS), has increased. Despite the effort by the government to improve the health care system in Malaysia, EMS within the country are currently limited, best described as being in the "developing" phase. The Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Civil Defense, and non-governmental organizations such as Red Crescent and St. John's Ambulance, provide the current ambulance services. At the present time, there are no uniform medical control or treatment protocols, communication systems, system management, training or education, or quality assurance policies. However, the recent development of and interest in an Emergency Medicine training program has gradually led to improved EMS and prehospital care.