QEH II IS 158 DAYS DELAYED

By : DR FELIX CHONG

KOTA KINABALU : I call upon the authorities concerned to explain why the new twin-tower blocks of Queen Elizabeth II Hospital are further delayed despite the government's earlier and constant pledge it would be completed on time.

It is now learned that the twin-tower is already 158 days behind schedule and according to a reliable source works now seem to be getting even slower with the unfavourable weather conditions.

All the while the people of Sabah and Kota Kinabalu are held to ransom with chaotic, sub-standard access to medical services which are our basic requirement and right. We don't want our ill loved ones to be shuffled around between partly completed hospitals in Kota Kinabalu.

The Prime Minister, the Minister of health and deputy minister of health (Datuk Rosnah Shirlin, a Sabahan) must explain why the delay to QEH is acceptable. We can no longer tolerate being the only state in Malaysia that has been  deprived of a general hospital for so many years now. It is an embarrassment and shameful.

I also call upon the Health Ministry to get serious about the dilapidating infrastructures in the old QEH blocks which are still being used till this day.

The recent incidence where parts of the ceiling at the old male wards fell and injured a patient should serve as a lesson. Don't wait for more accidents like this to happen before acting. Be pre-emptive and pro-active.

If the ruling party wants to put some meaning into their "Rakyat Didahulukan" they better don't allow a repeat of this incidence at the QEH, or else people would say it is "Rakyat Didahulukan Mati" instead.

We cannot take it at this modern and peaceful time to see the lives of patients, by-standers, doctors and medical staff being put in unnecessary danger from being injured by falling ceilings or even collapsing walls and floors.

The authorities must get serious at once.