Steps being taken to address emergency response wait time, says Dr Zaliha

KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry has yet to develop a database on the prevalence and rate of deaths that had taken place while waiting for medical response, including those on the way to healthcare facilities, says Dr Zaliha Mustafa (pic).

However, the Health Minister said, in a written Parliamentary reply on June 6, that certain initiatives have been taken to allow the ministry to respond efficiently and objectively for such cases in the future.

Among them is the ministry’s involvement with the Pan-Asian Resuscitation Outcomes Study (Paros) Clinical Research Network, which aims to step up the emergency services system Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) in the Asia Pacific region.

Paros collects baseline information on prevalence, treatment and outcome of OHCA cases and highlights the variations in the emergency treatment system. It would then suggest the interventions needed to handle such cases.

Dr Zaliha said based on Paros’ data on fatalities reported to Health Ministry facilities, between 11 and 82 cases of deaths were reported while waiting for emergency response, between 2010 and 2019.

As for deaths reported while on the way to a healthcare facility, there were between three and 31 cases for the same period.

Dr Zaliha was responding to a question by Wan Razali Wan Nor (PN-Kuantan) on the deaths reported while waiting for emergency response, including those that occurred on the way to healthcare facilities.