KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) on Monday said the Prime Minister should replace the Health Minister Datuk Liow Teong Lai with someone more capable.
Its Information Chief, Chong Pit Fah said this following power disruptions at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH1) from 4pm until midnight on Sunday.
He said Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak should personally look into the public healthcare 6asco that is affecting the people in Sabah.
"The healthcare situation in Sabah has reached a critical stage that there's no point appealing or even shouting at our Health Minister anymore.
"It's time that our Prime Minister himself look into the matter now," he said in a statement.
He suggested that Najib allocate time during his scheduled visit to Sabah this week to conduct an inspection into the healthcare situation in Sabah.
Following that he said Najib must immediately come up with effective measures to address the pressing problem.
Chong,who is also SAPP Kepayan CLC Chairman said whoever is in charge of looking after the State healthcare services should take the full responsibility over the power disruption in QEH1 on Sunday.
He claimed to have received complaints from various quarters including the patients’ families and medical staff over the chaotic situation in the hospital on Sunday, where quite a number of patients had to be transferred to QEHII and the Likas Women and Children Hospital.
He said the hospital's back-up generators were unable to cope with the situation. "Some patients even had their drip detached and then transferred to other hospitals.
According to him, the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) stopped accepting patients at around 9pm.
"And to make matters worse, many blood palettes had to be disposed off in the later part of the night, which is a great waste of the blood donors' effort in donating their blood to the Blood Bank,” he claimed.
Noting that the incident clearly demonstrated the Barisan National (BN) Government's “incompetence and uncaring attitude” towards the sufferings of Sabah people, Chong stressed that the State Government too should conduct an independent inquiry into the incident as well as come out with a full report on it.
He claimed that there have been many premature deaths among patients seeking treatment in public hospitals, largely due to the poor medical services in Sabah.
To this, he expressed hope that no cases of serious complication affected the patients during and after the power disruption
He urged affected patients and their families to come forward and lodge a report so as to compel the government and the Ministry concerned to take the matter seriously and implement serious measures to prevent it from recurring.
Daily Express
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
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