An Ugly Side of My Country

This is something which I just got to know about. How corrupted this country is. Yes, the country which I'm staying in. Corruption not only happened in the government but to the everyday lives and this one, to the matter of life and death which really disgust me.

Recently a friend's father got hospitalized. Her dad fainted in his house. Naturally, her brother calls for help. He called his friend to help him get an ambulance as he was trying to help his dad regain conscious. The ambulance is from PBSM which is our Red Crescent Society. I have no idea how this friend get an ambulance from PBSM.

Apparently, it took sometime before the ambulance arrived and the ambulance even lost their way and tell the caller they can't find the place. Is this how an ambulance should provide their services when human being's life is depending on them??? I suggest the company provide them with a GPS system so they have no excuse to be lost or can't find the place.

It's known that whenever we need the ambulance services, we would have to pay a fix sum if not by mileage. What astonished me is that when my friend told me that the ambulance guy actually asked for 'kopi money' before they sent her father to the hospital. Her father is already inside the ambulance and waiting for the ambulance to sent him to the hospital and yet this guy is outside demanding for 'kopi money' before he drive the sick guy to the hospital. This is day light extortion! How can he asked for money when my friend are already paying for the ambulance service? This is a matter of life and death as my friend's father is in critical condition. A minute delay means a minute less for the doctor to save him life.

From some blogs which I just read, it seem that most of the ambulance services are privatised. Even if you called up the hospital and request for an ambulance, you will be told that all their ambulance are out and refer you to a private ambulance service provider. Privatization to me is not a bad idea but when it is privatized and there's no service delivered then what is the use of privatization?? Apparently this seem to be the case whenever a person call up for ambulance services and this is not the first time such issues had been highlighted. I told my friend to write a letter to Ministry of Health and the newspaper to complain and make known about this issue. But she's reluctant and said 'suan ba' (forget about it) and don't wanna make a big fuss over it. But that's not what I see, if everyone who received such services and just forget about it, then these situation will keep on repeating itself. These people will get away easily and keep on doing their daylight extortion. It's sad to know that people are taking advantages out of such situation.

As I read more blogs about ambulance services provided here in M'sia, mostly are complains about their delay in reaching the locations. Especially huge accident location where the victim/s are in really bad shape. I felt bad and ashamed for my country. Ambulance are supposed to help us the 'rakyat' and yet they let us down and some even cause unnecessary death especially to accident victims. I wonder how these people view the value of life. I really hope the Ministry can do something about this and not to let our 'rakyat' down again.