Archive for category Health
50th Merdeka – nightmare of public health system
Posted by Kit in Good Governance, Health on Saturday, 5 May 2007
Our Pathetic Healthcare System
by “Product of the System”
Once upon a long time ago, I vowed as a naive medical student to serve fellow Malaysians with my utmost sincerity.
Despite much disappointment with the mediocrity of our local university, I was determined to repay the rakyat for the subsidy they have provided me with.
It has finally dawned on me that it is practically impossible to provide optimum healthcare in a pathetic healthcare system like Malaysia’s.
Indeed, ours is a system that is flawed at its very roots, and top.
An Obsession of Vanity
The shortcomings of Malaysia’s healthcare are anything but oblivious to the Ministry of Health (MOH).
Instead of putting in concrete efforts to overcome simple problems with simple solutions, the MOH has instead chosen to busy itself with efforts of vanity and exhibitionism.
Penning a rosy Piagam Pelanggan and a lofty “misi dan visi” for every single sub-department will not translate into better services.
Putting our healthcare personnel through time-wasting, brain-washing Kursus Induksi, Biro Tatanegara (BTN) and Penilaian Tahap Kecemerlangan (PTK) programs will not produce more skillful and knowledgeable staff.
Holding weekly perhimpunan pagi hospital and singing patriotic-sounding songs will not miraculously make anyone serve their fellow Malaysians with greater commitment and efficiency.
Forcing our doctors to don bacterial-laden white coats and equally lethal neck ties is the perfect example of style without substance.
Seeking and attaining MS ISO accreditation is far from reflective of the quality of services our patients are receiving.
These fanciful so-called recognitions have instead added unnecessary red tape and rigidity to a clumsy, obese system already burdened and bloated with excessive bureaucracy and paperwork.
The MOH’s misplaced obsession with ISO recognition and protocol is holding everybody back — doctors, nurses, lab technicians, radiographers and everyone else trying to fulfill their duties in a system that frustrates.
While healthcare in much of the rest of the modern world is cruising ahead, Malaysia’s is so very wedged in the medieval ages, with no signs of any prospective improvements under a greedy government more concerned about serving the interests of its cronies in the money-loaded field of medicine. Read the rest of this entry »
Chua – have a heart
CHUA: HAVE A HEART
by LKN
KUALA LUMPUR
Perhaps Lee Kuan Yew is right and we should indeed pay Ministers more if we are to expect a better dose of governance.
I read with bewilderment the MOH’s appeal to private hospitals to provide affordable heart surgery to the poor failing which it will invoke the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998 (PHFSA) to direct these hospitals to carry out “their social responsibility.”
Chua appears to have been suddenly inspired with this brilliant idea following his visit to the Narayana Hrudayalaya Institute of Cardiac Sciences in Bangalore and speaking to its “world-renowned director” Dr Devi Shetty where 14 Malaysians have been treated.
He further reasoned that the MOH may “arrange for the poor to be treated in Bangalore at a minimum rate if presumably prices in Malaysian private hospitals are not “reasonable”.
The Health Minister appears to demonstrate either inconceivable fiduciary irresponsibility or complete economic ignorance as to why cardiac costs and its concomitant services are high in the private sector.
He further seems oblivious as to why the government’s own hospitals cannot be more efficient in treating these patients ignoring completely that costs in government hospitals are probably the same if not more save for the fact that the tax-payer instead actually pays the same bill for government patients. Read the rest of this entry »
Businessmen using docs as proxies to open clinics
BUSINESSMEN USING DOCS AS PROXIES TO OPEN CLINICS
by FDI
Shah Alam
I read with amusement the above article which was headlined in the mainstream media stating that only doctors are allowed to open clinics. Doesn’t the MOH have better things to do? Clearly this does not bear logic.
Large private hospitals in this country with all their various specialist clinics are owned by such corporations as KPJ which are public-listed, Sime Darby, Tabung Haji, Pantai Hospitals, Sunway, Gleneagles, are all owned by businessmen. They employ or contract out services to a large number of doctors. The Raffles Medical Group in Singapore is also owned by businessmen and runs a chain of 60 medical clinics in various parts of the island.
In fact it is to the advantage of doctors that businessmen are partners/owners in these ventures as it would bring in much needed investment capital and management expertise to upgrade services and also frees the doctor to focus on what he knows best — doctoring, and leave matters pertaining to customer service, marketing, accounts, IT, billing, credit control and banking to people who are well-versed and trained in these areas, unless of course the MOH would like to see our doctors become ruthless businessmen attending share market reviews instead of medical conferences.
If this rationale was applied to other industries, then buses must be owned by bus drivers or conductors, engineering companies be owned only by engineers or Genting should not own a power plant as they are only experts in gambling and Manchester United must necessarily be owned by Bobby Charlton or Ryan Giggs and not the Glazer brothers. We might as well dismantle the KLSE. Read the rest of this entry »
Scrapped Klang Private Hospital
Posted by Kit in Good Governance, Health on Monday, 2 April 2007
SCRAPPED KLANG PRIVATE HOSPITAL
Z. IBRAHIM
I read with interest Datuk Seri Mohamad Khir Toyo’s decision to stop the construction by an international conglomerate to build a RM400 million hospital in Teluk Gadung Klang. “Plans for Klang hospital scrapped” (NST March 30, 2007).
Apparently the MB was “advised” to do so by his political comrade in arms and Klang Municipal Council (MPK) councilor Datuk Teh Kim Poo on questionable scientific grounds that “”It would be bad feng shui for his neighborhood, himself included and that they feel the value of their homes will drop.”
Because of this superstition and without a proper debate by the MPK itself, yet again Mr. Teh Kim Poh appears to have single-handedly, this time shooed away a significant portion of this country’s FDI which would have given many Malaysians in the Klang area work in the proposed 14-storey hospital on a 2.5hectare area. The cowboyish antics of Klang Municipal councilors never seem to amaze Malaysians.
His belief in the supernatural forces apart, Mr Teh Kim Poh had no such coyness when he bulldozed his way into building a “Perpaduan” building with open air pit toilets on a children’s playground right in front of residents’ house at Southern Park, Klang three years ago despite all protests by residents affected with these plans. Read the rest of this entry »
Ambulances run out of petrol – Yusnita Abas another avoidable death
With the latest scandal of ambulances running out of petrol resulting in another avoidable death, the Health Minister, Datuk Dr. Chua Soi Lek should inform Parliament tomorrow what shake-up he had initiated to end the mounting public criticism of outrageous ambulance emergency services and response time to give top priority to saving lives.
Friday’s New Straits Times reported the scandal-cum-tragedy of Yusnita Abas, 31, wife of a factory worker, Ghafur Mohd Ibrahim who said his wife would be alive today had she received prompt medical treatment, including efficient ambulance service.
Although on the fateful day, she went to the Kepala Batas Hospital at 1 pm after being advised by a private doctor, she was not attended to until she lapsed into a semi-consciousness state around 6 pm.
Doctors later realized that Yusnita was suffering from a ruptured blood vessel and ordered that she undergo a CT scan at the Seberang Jaya Hospital. Ghafur was told that that Yusnita would have to undergo emergency surgery at the Penang Hospital if the CT scan showed there was a blood clot in her brain.
This is Ghafur’s harrowing tale: Read the rest of this entry »
Of Little Napoleons…the Health Ministry and… the Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital in Alor Star
Posted by Kit in Good Governance, Health on Thursday, 15 March 2007
OF LITTLE NAPOLEONS… ..THE HEALTH MINISTRY AND… ..THE SULTANAH BAHIYAH HOSPITAL IN ALOR STAR
AHMAD SOBRI
It is appalling that the Malaysian public had to witness yet again another squabble between the Works Minister and Health Minister about the unending controversy of the still uncompleted new Alor Star General Hospital.
Earlier, the Deputy Minister of Health Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad apparently accepted blame on behalf of the Health Ministry saying delays were necessary so infrastructural changes could be made to accommodate the latest technological changes in medicine.
Not so, said the Health Minister Chua Soi Lek still insistent that the Works Ministry with its changing contractors were to blame for the mess. Samy Velu, obviously peeved with the finger-pointing, sarcastically accepted blame for the delays,
In Operation Desert Storm, shortly after Iraqi troops rolled into Kuwait in 1990, the United States deployed to Saudi Arabia more than 20,000 medical personnel to provide medical care to coalition forces.
The medical infrastructure for the war included 50 to 500-bedded combat zone fleet hospitals deployed in various parts of the war zone. The scope of treatment available at these facilities mirrored fully-staffed hospitals in the United States. The first 500-bedded Fleet Hospital was built in just 16 days, with the help of Navy Construction Battalion Units complete with operating rooms that can handle general surgical cases, neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, orthopaedic surgery, intensive care units and radiological facilities.
These facilities were further supported by 1000-bedded hospital ships, each of which were equipped with 50 trauma stations that form the casualty receiving area, 12 operating rooms, a 20-bedded recovery room and 80 intensive care beds. The entire medical network comprising 60 hospitals and infrastructure to take in both military and civilian casualties was ready in three months so war against Saddam Hussein could commence.
This level of efficiency appears to elude our health planners and hospital builders in Malaysia. Granted we are in peace time and all these hospitals are Malaysia’s version of “super-hospitals” designed to last us generations, it still doesn’t absolve the persons involved in this muddle for wasting hard-earned tax payer’s money. Read the rest of this entry »
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