Licensing and accreditation and private ambulance services
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May I know whether the private ambulance services presently have to be licensed, accredited and certified and if so, by whom or which bodies or agencies.
Reply
At present the stand alone private ambulance services are not being licensed, accredited or certified by the Ministry of Health.
Those private ambulances run by the private hospitals are part of the hospitals service and the hospitals are responsible to ensure their standards and safety.
The Ministry has in its plan to regulate this private ambulance & services under the Private Healthcare Facilities & Services Act 1998 (Act 586) through its regulations 2006. This services has to be gazetted under the Act 586 and standards need to be in place in the regulations.
Currently, these standards are being looked into.
Those private ambulances operators are advised to inform the Ministry on their operations so that it would facilitate them later when regulatory mechanism sets in.
At the same time, they are also advised to have self regulatory mechanism for services provided.
In terms of other aspects such as permit to use special lightings, these are under the Road Transport Dept.
