Let's talk about Malaysian Emergency Response Services 999 (MERS 999).

MERS 999 is initiated by the government, collaborating Telekom Malaysia (TM) with 5 emergency response agencies.

(A lot of criticism on cost + implementation, but I'm not here to talk about that)

MERS 999 unifies 5 emergency response agencies under one phone number. 999.

These agencies are:
1. Kem. Kesihatan
2. PDRM
3. Bomba
4. Angkatan pertahanan awam
5. Maritim (tiada dalam gambar)

Pics from Google search.

I will focus on services by Kem. Kesihatan.

Tackling the bull by the horn, I'll go straight to what happens when you call 999 for an ambulance.

Dialing 999 will connect you to the TM 999 Call Centre.

The person who answers will note the details of your emergency. TM 999 Call Centre may activate more than one agencies.

Now I will focus on the KKM arm.

TM 999 Call Centre will gather information on your emergency, it will relay these info to the Medical Emergency Call Centre (MECC) based in your locality.

Most of the time they will patch you to the MECC directly.

MECC has few options on which ambulance to activate.

Which ambulance depends on many factors. The services can get stretched out.

It is possible at one time, all the ambulances in that particular MECC are out responding to other emergencies.

In this case, other ambulance will be activated.

There are 26 MECCs throughout the country. This picture is from 2012. It's from the Emergency Medical & Trauma Services (EMTS) guideline book, downloadable online. Listed are 21 MECCs. 5 more have been added since. (I'm not sure exactly what are those 5)

It is a policy that the ambulance sends the patient to the MECC it is responding to.

Contoh 1: MECC Melaka sends out their ambulance to respond, the patient will be sent to Hospital Melaka.

Contoh 2: MECC KL sends out PBSM ambulance, patient will be sent to HKL.

This is purely because of distance.

The ambulance cannot comply to patient's prefered hospital.

Contoh: Caller calls from Cheras. The patient has difficulty breathing, has follow up in HKL specialist clinic. Ambulance responding ia from PPUKM. Patient will be sent to PPUKM.

Contoh lagi:

Caller calls from Dataran Merdeka. Patient skidded from motorbike, broke his leg. Ambulance responding is from HKL. Patient has health insurance, holds a medical card, requests to be sent to private hospitals. HKL ambulance cannot comply to request. Goes to HKL.

Okay this is THE MOST IMPORTANT PART on this thread. If you find this berjela-jela, just read this segment.

Focusing at this point of a 999 call, the more focused and precise the information that you give, the better the response will be.

This is the thing that should be said, in the order it should be said.

1. Nature of emergency.
2. EXACT location of incident.
3. Number of victims involved.
4. Other hazards involved.
5. Best way to reach incident site.
6. Your contact detail.

Contoh:

Ada kemalangan motor & lori balak. Penunggang cedera parah.

Kemalangan di MRR2, arah Ulu Klang menghala ke Cheras, di depan simpang Bukit Antarabangsa.

Saya kira 3 mangsa.

Lori sedang terbakar.

Jangan guna jalan dari Ulu Klang. Sesak dan laluan kecemasan kena block.

With a single call, you activated 3 ambulances, directed them the best route, also activated other relevant agencies like Bomba and PDRM.

Contoh lagi:

Ada pesakit pengsan dan tidak bernafas.

Di Suria KLCC, Ramlee Mall, Tingkat 3.

Ada orang sedang lakukan tekanan dada.

With that call, MECC will activate a Type A ambulance (maximum medical response).

The MECC staff can also guide you on how to appropriately to do CPR and guide you how to use an AED.

AED ni ada kat banyak tempat. Airports, malls. Berguna untuk cardiac arrest.

What NOT to do.

Panic.

Nothing is going to happen if the person on the other end of the phone only hears:

"Cepat hantar ambulance!!! Ada orang pengsan! Ada orang pengsan! Omaigod!!! Dia dah mati ke??!!! Cepatlaaahhh!!!! Lambatnya you all ni!!!"

Now this actually happened during my ambulance rotation.

I was listening to conversation between a caller and an MECC officer.

The officer was asking for location. All he got was:

"Saya tak kisah macam mana, awak hantar ambulans sekarang. Pakcik saya tak bernafas."

We tried to calm the man down, but he kept saying:

"Kenapa awak bazir masa ni? Hantar ambulans!! Hantar sekarang!!"

It went on for maybe 15 minutes.

We don't have geo-location capabilities at our disposal. We rely on good quality information to deliver our services.

Sometimes it is easier to give exact location on highways because highways have kilometer marker every 100m.

Contoh:

Highway Utara-Selatan, menghala utara, di roadmarker KM 264.3.

Highway MEX, menghala ke KL, roadmarker KM 25.6. https://twitter.com/Jxjot/status/985501091025502208?s=19

Kilometer marker ni biasanya di divider tengah highway. Gambar untuk contoh.

Gambar dari Google search.

For every services offered, there are usually ways people can get back to for feedback and comments.

However, I cannot find customer service number for MERS 999.

The website http://999.gov.my  does not work. MERS 999 Facebook page was last updated in 2013.

Based on recommendations, if you want to give feedback on MERS 999, this is what you can do:

If the problem is at the hospital level, it is better that you contact the said hospital director's office and file a complaint at the Bahagian Aduan.

If the problem is with the TM 999 Call Centre, you can get in touch with TM directly.

2 senior MECC staff have suggested this - you can call 999 and ask if they have Bahagian Aduan - though this sounds odd to me. So proceed at you own discretion.

Hope this helps. This is what I could search and clarify with given time I have.