Our Government Hospitals Need a Complete Overhaul
Much is wrong with our government hospitals. It is hoped that the new Health Minister would strive to improve the facilities and services.
Lower Middle Class Patient
The recent uproar over Chinese doctors refusing to see non-Chinese patients needs to be studied seriously, and steps taken must be taken to prevent such occurrences. But it must be borne in mind, the Chinese medical staff are not the only culprits. There are bad apples in every ethnic group.
Streamlining hospitals should start from the very top administrators, as the ultimate responsibility rests with them. They should get out of their air conditioned offices and monitor what is happening in the wards and clinics.
A good place to start would be the Selayang Hospital. It is a fairly new hospital but the level of cleanliness particularly in the bathrooms is shocking. Toilet paper and soap are not always available.
Admittedly, the number of patients in government hospitals is large. Even then the first to come should be first served unless there are some very exceptional circumstances. But the nurses and sisters at Selayang Hospital pay scant attention to such rules . This is particularly glaring at the Urology Clinic.
All the patients are given numbers except the patients who see the Chief Urologist and Head of Department. I do not know why this is happening.
The sister in charge, Sister K, is very arbitrary in sending the patients in to see the Chief Doctor. I have been taking my elderly father, who is 84 years old to the Urologist for more than two years. He is wheel chair bound and has other complications. I usually take a day’s leave to take him to the hospital.
We usually arrive at the main counter at about 8.30 am, having left our home at 6.30 am and often get to see the doctor only at about 12.30 – 1.00 pm, sometimes later.
Calling patients in the order they arrived is obviously never heard of.
Most times my elderly and sick father cannot take the strain of waiting so long. I have tried many times to explain to Sister K my father’s predicament and that we arrived at 8.30 am and that many patients who came very much after us have seen the doctor and gone home.
Her stock reply is “semua orang datang pada pukul lapan”. Is this a logical or reasonable reply?
I have had a look at the Patient’s Name List she uses many times. My father’s name is always at the bottom or near bottom of the list. I fail to see how a patient who arrives at 8.30 am can be at the bottom of the list.
On my father’s apointment card his appointment time is stated as 9.00 am.
The final straw, that prompted me to write this letter was what happened during my father’s last appointment. We arrived at 8.30 am as usual and registered at the main counter. Immediately after my father a Datuk registered.
I know he is a Datuk because I have seen his pictures in the local newspapers. He was seen at 9.45 am and my father was only seen at 1.15 pm. When I pointed this out to Sister K., she just gave me a baleful stare.
Can the hospital authorities explain why such incidents are allowed to happen?
I have also heard the person at the main counter refusing to register patients because the rules are that they should come one hour before their appointment.
Is this a reasonable rule? Many patients come from afar and it not possible to do so.
Further, however early you come it is almost impossible to get a parking spot. The parking situation is simply horrendous!
Some patients who use public transport just cannot comply with such a rule. Are such patients just expected to hang around till they can be registered?
Worse of all, some aged and illiterate patients do not understand such finicky rules!
Aged and very sick patients should be given priority, not ‘Datuks and Tan Sris’.
To make matters worse, some senior hospital staff and medical sales representatives are able to walk into the doctor’s room as they please, making the poor patients’ wait even longer.
The Hospital should just register patients as they come and give them numbers as the nursing staff have proven they cannot be relied upon to act impartially.
I would like to add that the Chief Urologist is a very well qualified, capable and caring doctor. He has taken excellent care of my father over the two years and most probably is unaware of his staff fiddling with the Patient’s Name List.
However such behaviour should not be tolerated and Sister K and her kind should be called up and proper action should be taken. This would deter other staff from acting likewise.
I sincerely hope the shocking state of affairs will improve at the Selayang Hospital.
