Another Project by BNâ€¦falls to pieces

ARCHIVES 2009

By admin-s On Jun 5, 2009

By Pak Bui (Hornbill Unleashed)

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah’s main hospital, has been crippled since last year. Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai admitted last October that the main QEH tower block, housing 250 beds, the forensic medicine block, and the boiler room, had all been deemed unsafe. Hospital staff and patients had been sounding the alarm for eight long years, terrified by pieces of concrete dropping to the floor in the wards and toilets.

There followed a chaotic period of scrambling for beds. QEH patients were bounced around to private hospitals, including the high-priced private Sabah Medical Centre (SMC), and the Beaufort District Hospital, half a day’s travel away for patients and their families.

The Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai pledged at the time that medical care would not be compromised. He said his Ministry would buy private hospital services in SMC to the tune of “around RM60 to 70 million” over the following one year, while waiting for new facilities to become available.

But in fact, the surreal situation led to poor patients being shuttled back and forth like ping-pong balls. One young man, with his liver split open in a road accident, received surgery nine hours after he first arrived at the crumbling QEH. Waiting lists for non-emergency operations ballooned too.

QEH nurses were overwhelmed, sending patients to other wards and hospitals, according to an important survey of 453 QEH nurses by the Sabah Nurses Association. Conditions were so cramped that nurses described kneeling on the floor to record their patients’ vital signs. Three quarters of the QEH nurses said they felt “embarrassed” when they had to answer questions from the public regarding the shambolic facilities. A similar proportion of QEH nurses said their families worried for their safety at work.

Half-baked solutions

Then in March, Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman came up with a novel idea, like a knight in shining armour. But he looked more like he was riding a donkey, when his proposal was ridiculed by politicians, doctors and patients alike. His suggestion was to move patients to Wisma Khidmat, a disused office block and shopping complex across the road from QEH. You can almost imagine the scene: “would you like fries with your antibiotics, sir?”

Finally, after six months’ delay, PM Najib made a grandstand announcement on May 4, during a visit to Sabah, a state he called BN’s “fixed deposit”. Najib said the government planned to buy over the SMC for RM245 million. This was another stunning bargain: the SMC in Luyang had been built for RM150 million.

Once the sale goes through, SMC plans to build a new “boutique” hospital near the beach, for its wealthy, pampered patients.

The inflated prices brought on an unmistakeable feeling of déjà vu. The old SMC in Likas had been bought over by the government previously, for RM150 million, and turned into the Likas Women’s Hospital. The old SMC in Likas had been built 30 years ago for RM5 million.

The SMC must look forward to future continuous upgrades, if the government keeps paying for it!