Rumah Sakit Yang Sakit
Increasingly, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the only tertiary referral center in Sabah is living up her grand title of being a sick house.
By Product of the System
An Open Letter to Health Minister
Dear Yang Berkhidmat Liow Tiong Lai,
Mr. Wong, an elderly man presented at Hospital Likas because of severe breathlessness and was found to have severe pneumonia on chest x-ray.
He was then admitted to the High Dependency Unit of Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) 30 minutes away for treatment.
He improved after six days and was then transferred to the normal ward for further recuperation.
A bed was urgently needed one day later and the frail Mr. Wong was then shipped off to Hospital Bukit Padang for ‘rehabilitation’.
Alas, he did not improve but instead deteriorated.
As Hospital Bukit Padang was devoid of the necessary equipment and setup for managing emergencies and ill patients, Mr. Wong was then resent back to QEH for further management.
More tests were required and old Wong was then sent to Sabah Medical Center for a CT scan.
I’m not sure what happened to Mr. Wong thereafter.
Dear Minister,
I hope this short story did not catch you in an awkward moment as the infamous video did to your amorous predecessor.
I hate to interrupt you in the midst of your personal battle for self preservation in the increasingly irrelevant political party called MCA but the healthcare crisis in Sabah has just taken a turn for the worse.
The locals in Sabah refer to hospitals as ‘rumah sakit’ – translated literally to mean a ‘sick house’.
Increasingly, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the only tertiary referral center in Sabah is living up her grand title of being a sick house.
Partially shut down since September 2008, the ailing sick house of Sabah has turned critical recently, with worsening cracks and falling tiles and a real threat of frank collapse.
The older blocks nearby were declared unsafe and subsequently evacuated and shut down.
Ill and frail patients were shipped off in a frenzy like unwanted cargo to nearby centers like Hospital Bukit Padang the mental institution, Hospital Likas, and the makeshift hospital of Lingzhi Museum in Kepayan and of course, UMNO’s favourite Sabah Medical Center (SMC).
Read more at: http://blog.limkitsiang.com/2010/03/23/rumah-sakit-yang-sakit/
