Health Minister, You Owe Sabah Answers! (Pass this on)

Health Minister: Datuk Liow Tiong Lai

This letter was first published on MalaysiaKini.com by a Concerned Citizen. It is an issue that concerns every Malaysian in Sabah. Pass this letter on fellow Sabahans and Malaysians...use your Facebook, your Blog, E-mail...whatever your choice of social media is. Let's get this viral!---

Dear Health Minister,

Ali,a 32-year old road traffic accident victim, travelled three hours from a district in Sabah and arrived in Kota Kinabalu six hours after the initial trauma. After the initial assessment in the emergency department,a CT scan of the head and abdomen was ordered to exclude intracranial bleeding and intra-abdominal injury.

He was whisked back onto an ambulance to the privately-owned Sabah Medical Center (SMC) for the required scans. After the ten-minute procedure,he was repacked into the ambulance back to Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) to undergo further assessment while awaiting the results of his blood tests and X-rays. His scans and X-rays were reviewed.

Ali was found to have lacerated liver and a fractured long bone with multiple superficial wounds. He was then prepared for emergency surgery.

For that,the young man was then re-wheeled into the ambulance and headed once again to the SMC where the operating theatre and intensive care unit of QEH are currently housed. By the time surgery starts,it was already nine hours from the time of his motor vehicle accident.

My story hasn’t finished,Mr Minister.

One hour into the operation,our chap bled tremendously that he required more blood products to sustain life. It would not be another hour or so before the blood products arrive from the blood bank of QEH to the SMC.

You see YB, blood has to be taken from the patient and passed to a house officer. The house officer will fill in the necessary forms and hand them over to an attendant. The attendant will wait for a chartered bus or ambulance to head back to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital or rather, what remains of it.

Back in QEH,the attendant will wait 45 minutes for the blood to be cross-matched and then wait a while more for the arrival of a chartered bus or ambulance to ferry him (or her) back to SMC.

Anyway,being a fit and healthy young man previously,Ali survived the operation. He was admitted to the ICU and needed a repeated chest X-ray.

For that,the radiography team in QEH is informed.The duo will then take the chartered bus or ambulance to SMC to perform the X-ray. Shooting an X-ray takes all but two minutes. Processing the cassette will take another five.

However,the processing is done back in the hospital and delivered by the next available ambulance back to SMC. By the time the X-ray films reach the patient,it could be anything from three to twelve hours later.

Dear Yang Berkhidmat ( YB ) Liow,

I hope you notice the unacceptable predicament our Sabahan patients (and medical staff) are facing currently.It is already six months since the initial and abrupt closure of Kota Kinabalu’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.Since then,we have been without a proper operating theatre and intensive care unit.

We are also without distinctive wards for many of our surgical patients of most disciplines. Frankly speaking,the health crisis of the state of Sabah has run so deep and so far along that i do not know where to begin.

I will instead serve an eye-opening fact to you,Mr. Liow. At the height of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic,the communist government of the People’s Republic of China erected a 1,000-bed hospital within seven days.

Work on the Xiaotangshan Hospital started on April 24,2003 and was completed on April 30,with 7,000 workers and 500 machines tirelessly on duty around the clock. Far from being a melamine-laced structure,the Xiaotangshan Hospital is equipped with the then state-of-the-art anti infective measures and facilities.

The structure built within a week is still standing firm six years later today,ready to house any ill and potentially infective patient in the event of any unforeseen health crisis.

Mr Health Minister,

That is exactly what Sabahans are in right now – a health crisis. The Barisan Nasional government chants ’ Malaysia Boleh’ like some proverbial battle-cry but the Sabah state health crisis has proven that empty vessels make the most noise.

Unlike MCA members,not everyone enjoys being labelled a ‘squatter’. For six months,the medical staff and patients of Sabah have been housed in sections of the Sabah Medical Center paying a whooping rental of RM90,000 per day.

For five months since our forced relocation into your prized SMC,we only had one operating room for life-threatening emergency cases. Elective surgeries were postponed indefinitely even those involving cancers and prostates and suspicious breast lumps.

We only restarted elective surgeries a month ago but even so,the backlog of cases is tremendous and catastrophic. I wonder Mr Minister,how would you like to have a tumor growing in your rectum with no avenue of getting it removed?

That is exactly what our poor Sabah folks are facing. They were without money and without a hospital to get operated in. In fact,they still don’t because they do not have a formal general hospital for Kota Kinabalu anymore.

Heck, we don’t even have our own CT scan. What we do have ,however is lots of bills to pay and debts to settle.Is it true that the state department of health owes SMC a total of RM 6.1 million for CT scan services?

Is it true that Hantaran Wira,the company contracted to provide transport to and fro SMC QEH is paid RM500,00 per month?

Mr Minister,

You owe the 3.4 million population of Sabah a lot of answers for wasted lives and needless deaths. Money cannot solve all the problems in life.

Thank you for listening.

---Sabahans screwed over again! Where is the money going?? Below are some additional reading sources on how the health crisis above unfolded: (top to bottom in order of events)http://medicine.com.my/wp/?p=5083
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.aspfile=/2008/11/18/nation/20081118142809&sec=nation
http://medicine.com.my/wp/?p=5346
http://medicine.com.my/wp/p=6274
http://www.sapp.org.my/mkini/090310_qeh.htm
http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=63574

Again, remember to pass this on!

Its been a while

Its really been a while since I update my blog...well..luckily my follower of this blog not much...so still ok...hehe...

Anyhow...life lately really sucks...internet broke down, sick, problem with my loan, elective thgy...really a lot of thgs happen..

However, some nice thg happen oso...our grp C research finished...well...do not know how the lecturer will mark our research...but who cares, as long as our grp did our very best, and we all work together. We move together and work together, thats the fun part of this posting.

We are closer to each other alr!!

There are a lot of photo of my kudat posting in my facebook account, so...if anyone free...can juz stop by and have a look...a lot of nice sea view photo and sunset and jumping photo...Haha!!juz really need a better camera to capture it...

Well..one week holiday alomost end d....really not have enuf rest due to all the problems occur...now left 2 days oni...need to enjoy my holiday till the max...

Then enter the final posting of 4th year...Ortho posting...how will it come??dunno...juz try to enjoy and learn as much as possible...

Then...the time i enter my final year of medical course...and most of the people use 5 years...but i am entering my 6th year of medical course...due to one year in IMU...

So...how will my fate end??No one noes...The oni thg i noe is I am going to try my very best...

Here...i also wish all my F6 frens, IMU batchmate, medical frens from UKM...u all grad soon to become a doc...so wish u all the best...and maybe when i grad...we can be college again...haha (if i pass lah)

Finally...i made some malay kuih during my holiday...Kuih Keria...em...its quite easy to make...thanks to all my master...Marne, Aizat...however it did not come out as i imagine and not really tasty...but i did it...so...hehe...

Well...will try to cook masi lemak today if i can get the ingredient...hehe...

Thanks for reading...and hav a nice day!!