KUALA LUMPUR: St. John Ambulance Malaysia (SJAM) and the Malaysian Red Crescent Society (MRCS) have joined hands in enhancing ambulance services and emergency response in the country.
St. John Ambulance commander-in-chief Datuk Lai See Ming said the cooperation between the two non-governmental organisations (NGOs) would also cover Hotspots 999 Ambulance Services (Perkhidmatan Ambulans Hotspots 999) and AED Komuniti Malaysia programmes in providing emergency and disaster aid to victims and training programmes.
"Even though we are normally considered as auxiliary, both organisations have played numerous roles as frontliners during the pandemic like emergency ambulance services to assist Health Ministry's hospitals and clinics, running blood donation campaigns, providing home care assistance for the sickly and haemodialysis services.
"Meanwhile, a lot of community support works have also been carried out, like providing additional personal protection equipment (PPEs) for frontliners, improving Covid-19 public awareness and registering them for vaccination, training programmes and first aid education for students and the public," he said in his speech during Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin's visit at SJAM headquarters today.
Khairy, who is also SJAM deputy national chairman and MRCS honorary vice president, was also briefed on implementation of the programmes that were part of the 2022 Budget, and later witnessed the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the cooperation between MRCS, represented by national deputy chairman Dr S. Selva Jothi and SJAM, represented by Lai.
In thanking the government for its support, Lai said the memorandum would emphasise on strategic partnership in conducting activities such as ambulance service programme, emergency and disaster relief; and health promotions by leading and supporting the ministry's initiatives in improving healthcare delivery services, as well as coordination of services and ensure that there was no overlapping of resources.
"We have also formed SJAM-MRCS steering committee co-chaired by SJAM's commander-in-chief and MRCS national chairman.
"This will create an effective governance where best practises of both the organisations and public or private sector could be taken and emulated."
He said under the two projects, the ambulance hotspot coverage would be increased to 20 locations from 15, while the Jaringan MyAED Komuniti and MYAED project is aimed at distributing the devices and establishing a network of AED nationwide.