EMAS Penang
The Star North - 10 June 2006
news extracted from The Star
THE Penang St John Ambulance plans to provide
24-hour emergency ambulance service on Penang island soon.
Its commander Datuk Dr Yee Thiam Sun said they were raising funds to
purchase more ambulances and hire full-time staff to provide the proposed
round-the-clock service. The plan is part of the uniformed body is Emergency
Medical Assistance Service (EMAS) programme, a community-based emergency
ambulance service.
LIFE-SAVING MOVE: St John Ambulance members Chong Tyan Yee (left) and
Tan Chiew Yuan practising CPR on a volunteer.
Members are on standby at the Bayan Baru
clinic to provide emergency service from 8pm until 8am every Saturday and on
eve of public holidays. Since last December, the ambulances have been
serving Bayan Lepas, Bayan Baru, Sungai Dua, Batu Uban, Sungai Ara, Relau,
Teluk Kumbar and Gelugor. Dr Yee said another ambulance was also on standby
at their headquarters at Grove Road from 9am until 5pm daily. He said that
the ambulances, which were borrowed from Kuala Lumpur St John, were well
equipped at a cost of RM238,000 each. We are raising funds to purchase more
ambulances with the ultimate aim of providing a 24-hour emergency ambulance
service,¨ he added. Dr Yee said they needed to spend about RM500,000 every
year, including for the purchase of an ambulance and operational costs.He
added that they would need to employ full-time staff to operate the service.
There is also a plan to buy two motorcycles, costing RM14,000 in-cluding
modifications and emergency equipment, to be used for the same service.
Volunteer Gan Hoo Kok, 26, said that
participating in the programme had taught him to appreciate life. Life can
be very fragile. A person may die just within a few minutes in an
emergency,¨ he added. Gan recalled that his most unforgettable experience
was during the tsunami in Dec 2004, when he was among the first batch of
rescuers at Miami Beach in Batu Ferringhi. The situation was chaotic and
choked with emotions as family members frantically searched for their loved
ones,¨ he said.
Fellow member Yeoh Koon Yong, 27, said the
voluntary work gave him an opportunity to help people from all walks of
life.
There was a time when we attended to a drunkard, who fell and injured
himself. Everything went well until he urinated in the ambulance just as we
reached the hospital.
It was a simple case but the aftermath was great as we took about an hour to
clean up our vehicle,¨ he added.
For details, call the society at 013-4080993.
EMAS
Penang,
Dynamic, professional, committed to the community
