Health ministry's ambulance service below KPI, audit report says

The ambulance service provided by the health ministry and the Malaysian Civil Defence Force (APM) has not reached its target based on audits conducted from 2017 until 2021.

According to the Auditor-General's Report 2021 Series 2, the scope of the audit showed that the ministry did not achieve the set key performance index (KPI), at 31.5% to 41.8% compared to the target of 50%.

"As for APM , it was 86.5% compared to the target of 100%, while the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) has reached the set target, which is 65.1%," said the report which was issued today.

The report said that some findings or weaknesses that should be noted include the management’s weakness in activating the response team at the hospitals close to the location of the incident, which was the cause of delay and the non-achievement of the KPI.

Also, the ambulance supply under the emergency provision is 10 months later than the approved supply date, it said.

In order to overcome these weaknesses and ensure that the ambulance service achieves its objectives as a fast transport service for emergency cases and pre-hospital treatment as well as an intermediate medium in patient transport, the audit recommended a number of actions.

One of them was for the health ministry and APM to formulate appropriate and suitable methods for setting KPIs to be achieved based on the distance and capacity of the assets.

"Review the placement of ambulances at hospitals/health clinics and district operation control centres according to the location of the incident to ensure that the set KPI is achieved," it said.

It said the ministry also needs to ensure that the contract renewal process is carried out before the contract expires to avoid the issue of small payment breakdowns.

However, according to the report, the overall ambulance service in Malaysia by the health ministry, APM and JBPM is satisfactory.