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Kota Kinabalu
Sabtu, Februari 15, 2025
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Liew supports State Government’s move to establish its own Emergency Call Centre

KOTA KINABALU: Former Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Christina Liew welcomed the announcement that the State Government was considering setting up its own Emergency Call Centre to meet the pressing need for efficient 24-hour free ambulance services.

She said the well-intentioned move was long overdue to avoid unnecessary delays and save lives in providing prompt ambulance services to the public in the event of emergencies.

The Api-Api Assemblywoman cum Tawau MP said more often than not, emergency situations were a matter of life and death.

She was commenting on Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan’s statement that the State Government was looking at the need to establish its own Emergency Call Centre, and that the local call centre would be more effective because it would be staffed by Sabahans.

“I support the State Government’s positive action as there is no need to wait any longer for the Federal Government to react. Procrastination is the thief of time. They (Federal authorities) are usually one step behind when it comes to fulfilling Sabah’s needs (as reflected in Sabah having been acknowledged as the lowest vaccinated state at one stage of the Covid-19 pandemic last year).

“The Federal Government should provide an allocation for emergency ambulance services to be provided by the State Government’s Emergency Call Centre,” Liew said in a statement on Friday.

She stressed that swift action is a must whenever an emergency call centre receives distress calls from the public. “Ideally, for easy communication, the call centre must be managed by bilingual staff who are also conversant in local dialects as far as possible.”

The ambulances, she added, must be in serviceable condition and well-equipped with basic life support facilities, apart from being manned by paramedics.

Liew recalled that there were unfortunate instances in the past where even government hospital ambulances ran out of fuel or broke down just as they were sending critical patients to the State capital.

“At least one patient from the interior had succumbed to his illness before reaching the hospital here, according to the patient’s family,” she said

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