SABAH Progressive Party (SAPP) wants Health Minister, Dato’ Dr Liow Tiong Lai to keep his word this time that healthcare issue in Sabah, particularly in the State Capital will be properly addressed.
Failing which, he should gracefully step down as the Health Minister and publicly apologise to the people of Sabah.
SAPP In formation Chief, Chong Pit Fah asserted that this is only appropriate in view of the fact that Liow had repeatedly announced the renovation of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital II (QEHII) on three occasions in the past since its purchase from Sabah Medical Centre (SMC), that it would be completed within six months to resolve the problem of acute shortage of hospital beds in the hospital.
Liow when visiting the QEHII on Sunday said that by end of year 2011 there would be extra 500 beds and by end of 2012 with the completion of the Twin Tower at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital I another 600 beds would be available.
On Liow’s contention that Sabah is not facing a healthcare crisis, Chong countered that if this was true, then why the government had to buy a ‘second hand’ hospital from SMC.
“Why the government need to take over a second hand hospital if there is no problem in Sabah’s healthcare system and why there is a need to rent the Ling Zhi Centre in Kapayan, which was not even designed-and-built to be a hospital but now being utilized to ward patients?” he asked.
He further noted that the situation was actually so desperate that even the entire sixth floor of the QEHII (formerly SMC building), which used to be the specialists consultant office was also turned into wards despite not having the necessary facility.
“Patients are even being placed in the holding rooms,” he claimed, adding that there were also many occasion where patients from the City had to be sent to other district hospitals due to insufficient hospital beds here.
“Even an ex-minister who had to go for a knee surgery was sent to the hospital in Sandakan and there are many instances where patients from Kota Kinabalu being referred to nearby district hospitals like Beaufort,” he said in a statement issued here Monday.
Chong also noted that Liow had even admitted that the contractor doing renovation works at the SMC was behind schedule which aggravated the healthcare situation in the city, following the decanting of Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) main tower block, after it was declared unsafe for occupation in November 2008. Besides being the sole General Hospital for the State Capital, QEH is also the sole referral hospital in the state.
As the result of this, patients from all over the State who are supposed to be treated at QEH were being distributed to the various district hospitals besides the QEHII, the Bukit Padang Hospital, Likas Hospital and the Ling Zhi Centre.
“SAPP hope the Health Minister will keep his words this time and not just another ‘lip service’ to pacify the public resentment over the chaotic healthcare system in the State,” he said.
He also urged the Government representatives and apologists to stop saying that SAPP was politicizing the healthcare issue, in particular the long delay in the reconstruction of the QEH main tower block.
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