KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 25 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) is procuring 490 Type B ambulances and related equipment via open tender under the provisions of the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP), the Dewan Negara was told today.
Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali said the move was to replace ambulances that were damaged or disposed of.
“This procurement is in the process of evaluating tenders and they (ambulances) are expected to be delivered to the users in stages from the middle of 2022,” he said during the question-and-answer session.
He was replying to a question from Senator Dr Ahmad Azam Hamzah who wanted to know whether the plan to buy 300 ambulances for use during the Covid-19 pandemic was still on.
Meanwhile, Dr Noor Azmi said that there were three types of ambulances, namely, Type A, Type B and four-wheel drive to avoid any confusion in future.
“Previously, the news went viral saying we (MOH) utilised ambulances with negative pressure and what not, actually, that is not in what we are doing now. This procurement is for Type B… there are three types of ambulances, Type A, Type B and four-wheel (drive).
“Type A is the most sophisticated, it has a ventilator, patients needing breathing aid can use them and most are sent to schools.
“The second one is type B, which we ordered, which are without ventilators, or complete knockdown class, meaning, we take this van and modify it to become an ambulance,” he said.
He said the procurement of the 490 ambulances came under phase one and MOH would implement phase two, namely, adding another 100 units to areas nationwide at a cost of about RM400,000.
Dr Noor Azmi said this in reply to answer a supplementary question from Ahmad Azam who wanted to know the expected annual maintenance cost for the ambulances.
— Bernama
