Htet Khaung Linn

Ambulance services to be integrated, brought under one call centre

Doctors from Yangon’s General Hospital and Medical University are overseeing an ambitious plan to integrate and standardise ambulance services in Myanmar, which would include a central call centre. Due to the underfunding and underequipping of public health services over decades, private charitable groups, numbering in the thousands, provide the vast majority of ambulance services in Myanmar, alongside other vital services. Though some, like the Free Funeral Service Society in Yangon, are well resourced and have their own busy call centres, most groups are small and highly local, offering a limited level of care and rudimentary equipment. The Myanmar Red Cross also provides emergency care across Myanmar. The new scheme aims to integrate these disparate services and pool existing resources, as well as promote common standards. Dr Nay Win Thein, assistant director of Yangon General Hospital, told Myanmar Now, “Currently, when people call for ambulances, they dial the one local number they know. But the relevant ambulance might be already transporting a patient when they receive the emergency call.” “That’s why we’ve discussed with international experts about developing a system operating around a call centre, with different ambulance services on rotation,” he said. The system would eventually cover the whole country,…