Some of our underfunded general hospitals appear to be overstretched as staff struggle to cope with the large number of outpatients. And to think they want to build a 100-storey tower while others want to promote ‘medical tourism’.
I happened to be at the orthopaedic outpatient treatment section at the Seberang Jaya General Hospital this morning and this was the scene that greeted me. Young and old, of all ethnic groups – people in wheelchairs, others in arm slings and still others holding crutches – they are accustomed to waiting and waiting and waiting to be called.
First, they have to crowd at the counter to pop in their appointment cards in a little plastic box – one box for 8.00am appointments, another for 9.00am and another for 10.00am. Many turn up early but they still have to wait, perhaps just as long.
Then they take a seat and wait for a long time for their names to be called, upon which they receive their queue numbers. One patient had turned up at 7.30am and only received the queue number at 10.00am.
And then it’s another wait for your number to show up on the board before you can finally see a medical officer (some of whom may not be that experienced), doctor or specialist. Mind you, the above pictures are at the new larger waiting room for outpatients. (The old one was too small and crammed.) The waiting room may now be more spacious but the crowd remains just as large, if not bigger.
One Pak Haji, a petrol pump attendant, was there because his son was involved in a road accident and had damaged his knee. He had taken the boy to the Kepala Batas Hospital but was referred here (Seberang Jaya Hospital) because the KB Hospital was “tak lengkap”, he told me.
Pak Haji lamented that he had to spend RM200 to buy a metal plate for the surgical procedure on his son’s knee. He’s lucky; others have to spend several thousand ringgit on nuts, bolts, stents and other paraphernalia before surgery can be carried out.
We have money for submarines and a 100-storey tower, but not enough for our public health care system, which suffers from an acute shortage of specialists, other staff and vital equipment. Sad, isn’t it?
Meanwhile, private (and sometimes well-connected) companies profit from the sale of the paraphernalia for surgery, the provision of privatised services (catering, housekeeping, maintenance of hospitals) and the supply of drugs to the general hospitals. And because of the overstretched services in general hospitals, many who can barely afford it are forced to turn to private hospitals, which, along with medical insurance firms, reap big bucks.
| Please help to support this blog if you can. Read the commenting guidlelines for this blog. |
Hey, 100% true story below. Happened in Melbourne, Australia. 10th Nov 2010 1. Arrived early at hospital, so decided to walk down the street to check out an expensive shop by famous Melbourne-based designer. Was pleasantly (but sadly) surprised to learn the “local designer” was a Malaysian whose entire family migrated from Malaysia! 2. Went back to hospital. Was registered by a loud receptionist who was Malaysian whose family migrated from Malaysia! 3. 20-30 minutes wait later, was seen by a specialist (endocrinologist) who studied at Melbourne Uni and then migrated to Melbourne… from Kuala Lumpur! (Oh btw, since this… Read more »
This goes to show our ignorant BN Gomen that Malaysians have what it takes to be reckoned globally. Malaysians not only of one supremacy race, but of multi-racial origins. In fact, Malaysians excel in many fields of academic, science, arts, industries and sports. And Malaysians are eagerly sought and welcomed by other nations. But the sad, but truly undeniably ugly fact is that since the R & 2M era of grossly distorted affirmative action of chasing away talents, we have been losing multitudes of talented Malaysians to other grateful nations. Our 40 years of opportunity cost of excelling from these… Read more »
I pity those ignorant folks who have to wait for hours at the general hospital. Perhaps their intention is different. I almost never have to wait more than 30 mins to see a doctor at a district clinic on the island and I am given a queue number the moment I call at the counter. As all of you are probably aware, the fee for consultation and medicine is only 1 ringgit per visit. (RM5 if you see a specialist) So unless you want to see a specialist or your body needs some complicated tests, don’t waste your time at… Read more »
I just can’t understand why people are complaining about govt hospitals. First of all, people who go to private hospitals and can wait for 3 hours to see a Dr without complaining but opposite in a govt hospitals. Secondly, appointments are staggered but people still come too early and complain thirdly I really wish you all know how heavily treatment costs are subsidized by the govt, next time all you people out there who are diabetics or hypertensives or men with prostate problem, go find out how much your medicine costs at a pharmacy , all you pay is 5… Read more »
GeraKAN K. We are talking about hospital here and not election…. Don’t worry Gerakan is part of BN so no need to wait. Just show your membership card and all will be kautim. They have special doctors for BN members.
Thanks Anil,
The relevant Directors (Hospital and State) should take note and institute the appropriate action (ambil tindakan yang wajar)
LKJ
Anil,
This patient that you knew, what was the appoinment time?
If the apointment time was 9am and he was seen around 10.45am, then the those accountable should be hauled up.
However, if the appointment was 10am and the patient seen within the hour, then the clinic should be given due credit.
LKJ
The appointment time was 9.00am, queue number given at around 10.15am, seen at about 10.45am.
And that despite coming in early to pop the appointment booklet in the box at 8.30am.
Anil, Patients have been given appointments – hence 8am, 9am, 10am etc boxes. The purpose of the appoinment system is to prevent congestion in the clinic which gives the impression that there is a big crowd and the hospital is struggling to cope. But patients for reasons best known to themselves prefer to come early and wait – hence the one given the 10am appointment will be given number at 10am and not earlier but the impression given is that the patient had to wait for hours to get a number. It would have been more useful to find out… Read more »
One patient I know came early at 8.30am, popped the card in the box for 9.00am appointments, but only received the waiting number at around past 10.15am and eventually saw the medical officer at around 10.45am. The reason patients come early is they hope that they will be ahead of the queues for the respective time slots – having previously found out that if they came on time, they would still have to wait a long time as the boxes would already be filling up. Apart from the sheer number of patients, a more efficient registration system is needed to… Read more »
It’d be interesting to hear how alternatives work. The feature that strikes me as an obvious sticking point is the difficulty in predicting workload. Maybe if you go on another day – when everybody has decided to take a ‘duvet day’ the waiting room will be empty. Perhaps there was a good kungfu movie on that morning, and you saw the result of thousands of people attempting to emulate it? Is there a way of adequately planning for accidents? If everybody gets seen by the end of the day (so demand is met by supply), perhaps the best thing they… Read more »
No, this was predictable as they mostly turned up by appointment – one batch at 8.00am, another at 9.00am and a third at 10.00am.
I was in a Private hospital in Green Lane in the last month.The 1st time it took me 3 hours to see the specialist, and the 2nd time it was 2.5 hours. In the 2nd instance I was the 1st to turn up to get a no at 7:45am. Saw the specialist at 10:15am.
50% of the patients were foreigners.
Apa lagi?
Still believe that there should be charge, based on income. Otherwise there will be a misuse of the facilities. When anything is free in Malaysia we find misuse and abuse
Building a 100 storey mega-tower will make us a high-income nation while spending the money on new hospitals and improving health care will not. That’s the message I am getting.
Hi Khatijah,
Great, healthy lifestyle is fine and good.
But i notice the title on top is about our healthcare system.
With such a healthy approach, the healthcare system prolly irrelevant to you. You would prolly never ever get sick in your lifetime.
If everyone can be like you, we dont even need a healthcare system.
All hail the mighty khatijah.
Our BN political elite obviously do not step into our local government hospitals just as their children are not educated in our local public schools.
Yes vote Najib, UMNO & BN and you will get to pay more for your medical bill. Previously you do not have to pay for surgical cost but now you have to pay even in a government hospital. This is what you get for voting BN UMNO years after years. And sooner there will no doctors except hospital attendant to attend to your sickness just like the sickup 1Malaysia clinic Now is the time for CHANGE to kick out Najis & UMNO together with their sycopants & weakling like Gerakan, MCA & MIC, PPP etc etc etc..for a better and… Read more »
Just tragic is the word to describe it. By the way I do not think even an opposition party in government can fix our hospital problem. We need to get back to the old days when the british ran a tight ship on health. Even small towns had efficient health clinics run by the ever reliable hospital assistants. As a kid in rural Malaysia i remember how efficiently things were being run. Nowadays everything is run using our Malaysian “kayu” mentality. Our health system collapsed in the mid eighties so its not a new problem.
Who cares? We can wait, wait, wait and wait but nothing will ever happen to improve public hospitals. And we pay blood, sweat and tears taxes and nothing happen. But ‘money-sucking’ kang tau expenditures like sinking subs and phallic-like 100-storey tower can OK without blinking an eye or wait-a-minute Parliament scrutiny. All because it is FREE-flowing money to splurge irresponsibly and self-servingly. Not Rakyat DiDahulukan. And the Perrenial Question of acute shortage of specialists is unnecessary: 1) Top non-bumi students applying for local medical course were/are still rejected or referred to other useless courses. 2) These top students leave the… Read more »
Step into any Singapore hospital (private or public) and you will find that a big number of their doctors are from Malaysia. They are either PRs or citizen of Singapore now. These doctors left Malaysia for medical education overseas and Singapore (on Singapore government scholarship from a very young age i.e. ASEAN scholarship for A level) becuae their talent is not good enough for the malaysian government because of the racist policy. Back in Malaysia, do you know that soem female malay doctors take your pulse with her pencil, because she cannot touch a male patient? Strange but true! Only… Read more »
Unhealthy lifestyle and poor diet cause malaysians to be obese and sick.
Please cut down on sugar consumption to reduce your risk of kencing manis. Ask for kopi kosong with less sugar. Do not take condensed milk.
If possible, minimise you intake of nasi kandar and nasi lemak as it has high cholestrol content leading to heart problems.
Avoid junk fast food in McDonald’s and KFC – fried suff are totally unhealthy for your heart!!!
Straight out from textbook. Textbook doctor?
What’s your point, if any?
I was at a private hospital yesterday where the scenes were exactly the same but with slightly nicer decor. I bet the free WiFi works better in a public hospital. If there had an empty seat or nobody standing at the counter, you would have been complaining about public sector waste.
Some said, many will die in few years time due to inexperienced doctors churned out from our graduate factories(universities). It is already happening. When average students, raced based and quota system is applied for medical seats in universities, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to predict that the people will suffer in the hands of these doctors. We must thank Mahatir for his AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PLAN. Medical students from some overseas universities are not recognised, as though Malaysian medical standard is superior in the universe. How can you expect the number of doctors to increase when redtape are enforced. Now… Read more »
I was told the hospitals give free medicine…I wonder who benefited the most?!…without having to take the proper channels. I am not against free medicine going to the needy, if the system is not abused. Even, a rich and developed country like Australia, no one is spared in paying for the medicines… except, for students, unemployed and pensioners whose medicine are heavily subsidized by the govt.
So why should the hospitals be so crowded, the system is left much to be desied, the ruling govt is undeniably corrupted!
In Australia, one still have to pay for any medicine. Therefore it is better to buy Hor Yan Ho if one has a flu rather than to buy all kinds of pills and cough mixture from the drug stores. The medicine in malaysia is not totally free. It is part of the admission fees you pay for every visit. The medicine bought by the Government is cheaper – like Medicare Bulk Billing – generic and in mass quantities. Even in Medicare, U have to pay up front. The GH is very generous. They give few weeks supply so that U… Read more »
subsidies…
The fault lies completely with the Federal Government. Most countries including Britain and Singapore changed their service strategies to Trusts or Independant managers ages ago. In Britain, it was changed in 1946!!!! But Malaysia still creaks along in 2010 with a hopelessly antiquated system. The basic problem is Private doctors in Malaysia are not incorporated into the public workforce. And that’s never going to happen with the likes of the current Health Ministry officials especially its HP6 DG. Many, many will be dying in the next 5 to 10 years for ccnditions that easily could have been prevented. The Malaysian… Read more »
Bro bukan di Seberang Jaya aje, tetapi perkara ini juga berlaku di HOSPITAL BESAR SEREMBAN, TAMPIN dan juga KLANG,,,,,, !!!!!!
Should state government take this into consideration, even it is run by federal government?
IMHO, the answer is yes. State government can’t increase hospital due to the country policies, but may help the medical stuff live better, e.g. provide transport.
Don’t put any hope in our state government. They will promise one thing and do another one. For example, instead of a proper State Local Elections, they organized a discriminative (to the poor), miniature (few hundred people only, who knows they are party supporters or not ???), and paid elections. If you want to vote, then pay money first. What sort of weird thing they had implement !!! I also suspect that was an organized scam that attempted to cheat money because I never heard of voters need to pay before voting. I cannot imagine if they run GE with… Read more »
This election was NOT run by the state government but by a group of NGOs known as the Penang Forum. The funds collected were to cover expenses incurred in running the election: hall rental, lunch (for those who pre-registered), stationery, etc
Anil
Gerakan K is a wannabe and will always be in a denial stage no matter what. You have already explained to him earlier but he keep fussing because PR and LGE can do something good that UMNO BN and other cannot
GERAKAN K only knows how to talk.
Woo hoo, Anil tipu !!! Anil tipu !!!
your statement:
………………………..
This election was NOT run by the state government
………………………..
LOL !!! But the DAP state government endorse and recognize it !!!
State Exco attended the polls and gave speeches.
Lagi mau spin kah Anil ???
Gerakan K,
You are really an idiot. You have alreday paid when you voted. Where does EC get all the money to organise a GE. Well from your pockets that is the taxes. Stupid.
No,
Yang, in any GE, any beggar without a cent in their pocket can vote.
Democracy and elections are not for the rich ones. But that election required money before you can vote. That is a fact that you can’t deny.
The post was on healthcare, which is solely the jurisdiction of the federal government i.e Barisan N
The state government of Penang has zero power when it comes to healthcare.
Gerakan K does not know anything the administration of this nation.
Please stop embarassing yourself.
UEC/STPM is endosed by overseas Uni. Does it means they also pay for the exams?
Things will get worst in public hospitals soon.
With local medical schools churning out so many graduates, doctors will not be adequately trained during houseman-ship.
It will not be safe to seek medical treatments in government hospitals in a few years time.