Open Letter to Minister of Health

 

 

By Stephen Ng

 

Dear Minister Dr Zaliha

 

Allow me to begin with a positive note which a friend who had just gone for a cataract operation at the local public hospital, sent to me.

“Clearer vision yesterday after Dr Haslinda gave me a third kind of eye drop. Yesterday was my first follow-up."

        When asked about the doctor and the medical team, she replied: "Yes. Good. Caring, knowledgeable, responsible. In fact, the whole team worked hard.

         “Didn't or hardly had their lunch; otherwise, it would be a hassle for them having to sterilize themselves again. So, they just carried on until they saw the last patient. Fantastic teamwork for a government hospital."

         Indeed, these are the good doctors and medical personnel we have in our public hospitals.

Blatantly Disdainful

         However, their welfare is hardly taken care of by their superiors at the ministry level. Now allow me to elaborate.

         After a fall I experienced while walking up the stairs at the local health clinic in Taman Ehsan, I wrote an official email to the Ministry of Health, for the attention of its Director-General, Dr Norhisham Abdullah about it. That was over a month ago on Jan 27.

The tread of each stair was very narrow at only 22 cm, which caused the tip of my sandals to hit the riser of the stair, causing me to fall over. It was good that I did not break my bones.

         After receiving no response, I then followed up with two other emails on Feb 14 and 25, which were also not responded to by Dr Norhisham.

         On Feb 24, when my son and I were using the stairs again, he also nearly tripped over. I can only imagine what may have happened over the past eleven years that these stairs, how many people, including pregnant mothers and senior citizens, would have fallen while using the stairs.

         Taking the trouble to report this to Dr Norhisham, I had expected him to at least expedite the approval for the stairs to be remedied. I wonder if he even bothered to check out on other health facilities to see if similar problems occur.

Shocking

         Now, what disappointed me the most is that, it was only after I lambasted at him and copied the chief secretary to the ministry that I finally received a response this afternoon from the local District Health office, claiming that they only received my complaint this morning via the ministry’s Public Response Management Section (Sispaa).

         The feedback I received from the lady officer who goes by the name Cik Norlaila (03-61207607) this morning at 11.41am was inconsistent with what the Public Works Department (JKR) office at Gombak had given me as a feedback on Feb 10.

         Going by the message from the JKR officer, it appears to me that someone else may have also complained about the stairs. The message read: “I have been informed that the District Health office has submitted the estimated cost of the remedial work to the stairs and awaiting approval from the ministry since last year.”

         Today is already March 1. Over three months have lapsed and the bureaucracy practised by your Director-general and District Office is simply deplorable. It is sheer malfeasance on the part of the Director-General, who could have easily responded to the first email and copied the relevant department for actions.

It is time that something drastic be done to take good care of both the medical staff on duty and patients. Supposing there is an emergency and they have to run down the staircase, I believe some will trip and fall over, and not to mention that one of the doctors at the clinic is pregnant.