Australia Funds Emergency Medical Copters

MELBOURNE, Nov 5 (Bernama) -- The Australian Government will give funding to CareFlight NSW (New South Wales) to provide Helicopter Emergency Medical Services training to Malaysian medical and military personnel. Announcing this on Sunday, Foreign Minister Bob Carr said about 150 personnel from all Malaysian states, Malaysian military, physicians from Singapore and a number of United Nations medical staff would attend the training. "Malaysia has approximately 7,000 road casualties a year. Many of these deaths are due to delays in ambulances reaching (scenes of) serious accidents and providing emergency medical treatment," he said in a statement. "Australia will fund specialised training in medical and rescue equipment and helicopter emergency medical services operations." The four-day training will be held at the Royal Malaysian Police Air Wing Unit training base at the Sultan Azlan Shah Airport in Ipoh, Perak and run from Nov 22 to 25. The project is funded by grant through the Australia-Malaysia Institute of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. "Australia is strongly engaged with Malaysia in working together to save lives", said Carr. -- BERNAMA