PRIVATE ambulance companies have seen a surge in demand for its services in tandemwith the growth of Covid-19 cases, providers of the service said.

They told The Malaysian Insight that since the onset of the pandemic, 90% of the ambulances calls they received were linked to the coronavirus.
 
The calls are mainly to fetch patients-under-surveillance or positive cases to the quarantine centres or hospitals for treatment.

Paramedic EMS Services Sdn Bhd (PEMSS) general manager and chief paramedic Faizal Nurdin said has been a surge for private ambulances, especially in recent months as the number of infections increased.

“There were days where we had to make more than 10 emergency trips within 24 hours,” he said.

He added that his team has served more than 100 patients since the pandemic.

He said one of their immediate challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic was having to safeguard paramedics from the infectious disease.

PEMSS has a fleet of 10 ambulances of various response capabilities ranging from non-critical Basic Life Support to life-threatening Advanced Cardiac Life Support categories along with 40 full-time medical staff taking on the role of paramedics and nurses.

It operates throughout Malaysia where it has expanded beyond the Klang Valley into Kota Kinabalu since its establishment in 2014.

Spokesman for Medicore Ambulance Services which operates in Negeri Sembilan, Pet Jia Li said there was an increase in the last two months due to the spike in Covid-19 cases.

She said that lately as the vaccination rate improved, demand for ambulance services have declined along with the need for Covid-19 hospitalisation.

“At the peak of the pandemic, we received an average of 20 emergency calls per day but unfortunately we can’t attend to each and every case due to multiple factors.

“However lately, the demand has reduced so we only receive an average of seven calls per day,” she said.

She said the ambulance firm has reduced its prices to cater for the poor.

Kevin Yap, staff officer for St John Ambulans Malaysia in Malacca, said work has been hectic since the pandemic started.

“Although we handle mostly non-Covid patients, we have allocated one ambulance just for Covid-19 patients which has made over 30 trips,” he said.

He added that they were in the midst of reviewing the price as cost has also shot up in the past couple of months.

The NGO has a fleet of 10 ambulances and a group of staff nurses and doctors in Malacca.

Malaysia has recorded more than two million cases of infection and 23,000 virus-linked deaths. – September 19, 2021.