Hospital needs permit to ferry patients

Sun2Surf: PENANG (May 9, 2007): Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board (CVLB) chairman Datuk Markiman Kobiran when contacted today said it is illegal for hospitals to provide transport services for their patients.
"Even if they are doing it as a free service for their patients, they still need a permit or licence to do so, either from us, the Health or Tourism Ministry to use their vans for such purposes.
"Otherwise, the service is considered illegal. The same also applies to vans sent by hotels to pick up guests from the airport.
"They must have permits from us or be licensed by the ministry to do so," he added.
Following the incident where a hospital van was stopped and detained by Road Transport Department (RTD) personnel after fetching patients from the airport yesterday, the hospital hired a tour bus to transport patients arriving today.
It is learnt that over the past week, RTD officials had also issued similar summonses to vans from other private hospitals on the island which also ferried patients from the airport to the hospital.
The problem has been ongoing for the past four years and limousine operators have been unhappy with hospital vans picking up the patients, which they claimed have been eating into their business.
A source said due to the problem, a few years ago, several hospitals even met the limousine operators to seek a solution to the problem but it did not materialise due to the limousine operators' refusal to fetch all the patients regardness of their medical conditions.
Meanwhile, RTD director Hassan Yaccob when contacted said an internal investigation has been commenced into yesterday's incident.
"I will be meeting with state tourism committee chairman Teng Chang Yeow and other relevant authorities tomorrow to help resolve this issue," he said in a telephone interview.