KOTA KINABALU: An ambulance was unable to respond immediately to an emergency situation here as they were unable to obtain the exact location of the patient due to a dropped call, says the Sabah Health Department.

       Sabah Health director Dr Rose Nani Mudin was responding to a report where a man who suffered a heart failure did not receive immediate attention and eventually died on Wednesday (May 4).

       A local daily reported that paramedics only arrived an hour after a distress call was made to the Malaysia Emergency Response Services (MERS) 999 number.

       Dr Rose said based on their investigations, the call to MERS 999 was made at 12.06pm but the call was disconnected while being transferred from the MERS 999 regional centre to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital medical emergency centre (QEH MECC) here.

       The call transfer is a routine verification process and also to obtain more details about the emergency from the caller.

       She said the MERS 999 regional centre and QEH MECC made six attempts to contact the caller between 12.07pm and 12.19pm but that the latter was not reachable.

       "This resulted in the ambulance not being able to be activated as the location of the emergency was unclear," she said in a statement here on Friday (May 6).

       According to the Daily Express, Lew Kok Fai, 54, from Ipoh, laid unattended in his car in Kolombong near here for about an hour before help arrived.

       This led to questions whether it is wise to route emergency calls to MERS centres in Kuala Lumpur, Melaka or Kuching as opposed to having a MERS centre located in Sabah.

       Dr Rose said a second call was made to MERS 999 from another person at 1.01pm when more details were obtained.

       "A team from QEH was sent out at 1.04pm and arrived at the scene at 1.16pm.

       "On arriving, the team found that the 54-year-old had no signs of life and his death was confirmed by a medical officer," she said.

       She said they were always committed to ensure medical services are at optimum level as lives are at stake.

       "The department requests the public to provide full information when making emergency calls so teams from Sabah hospitals can respond appropriately," said Dr Rose.