KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry wants treatment to be provided to patients within 90 minutes of registration at general hospitals, and has engaged a consultant to propose how this can be done.
Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said the consultant had two months to submit a report to enable the ministry to meet the stipulation in its Clients Charter of the maximum 90-minute waiting period for treatment at such hospitals.
However, he said delays in providing treatment were not only due to weaknesses in the filing system of medical records in hospitals, but also due to the attitude of patients.
“There are patients with appointments who fail to show up and others only come when it is suitable.
“Some patients also attend specialist clinics without any reference, while others are reluctant to return to their previous doctors, causing further delays,” he said after launching a blood donation campaign organised by the Balakong MCA in Cheras yesterday.
Dr Chua said many of those who sought treatment at the casualty unit also did not qualify for emergency treatment.
“There are some who come for treatment for itchy hands, diarrhoea and even normal cough,” he added.
On blood donations, he said all such donations were screened for HIV, Hepatitis B and C, and syphilis before being approved for transfusion.
Dr Chua also said that the ministry wanted to increase the number of volunteer blood donors from the present 2% of the population to 5% by the next 10 to 15 years.
-----The STAR
Soon after being appointed MINIster of Health, Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek was appallled by the long waiting and wasting time at the outpatient department aka JPL of his MINIstry's hospitals. He wanted the waiting time to be halved from the present 3 hours. This was what he said as quoted by the SUN on 5th April 2004 ::
It is now more than a year later and we poor visitors to the JPL see that patients are still having to wait long long. Once again MINIster Chua is talking about cutting waiting time to 90 minutes, does he realise that many things can happen in 90 minutes. It looks like his MINIstry cannot come out with any useful suggestions, did they check mine out. He is going to engage a consultant to propose how this halving of the waiting time can be achieved. And instead of putting the blame on his MINIstry and all those in it, he as usual, blames the patients ::
Now, what is a normal cough, MINIster, Sir?
"I have ordered ministry officials to look into the matter and want them to submit recommendations within two months for the waiting time at government hospitals to be reduced by half."
It is now more than a year later and we poor visitors to the JPL see that patients are still having to wait long long. Once again MINIster Chua is talking about cutting waiting time to 90 minutes, does he realise that many things can happen in 90 minutes. It looks like his MINIstry cannot come out with any useful suggestions, did they check mine out. He is going to engage a consultant to propose how this halving of the waiting time can be achieved. And instead of putting the blame on his MINIstry and all those in it, he as usual, blames the patients ::
- “There are patients with appointments who fail to show up and others only come when it is suitable."
- “Some patients also attend specialist clinics without any reference, while others are reluctant to return to their previous doctors, causing further delays.”
- “There are some who come (to the Casulty Unit) for treatment for itchy hands, diarrhoea and even normal cough.”
Now, what is a normal cough, MINIster, Sir?
2 comments:
Bumped into this blog. What's ur take on nursing students w known prolong depression w countless suicide attempts and history of 'moonlighting' as kept-women? Wont it be ironic tt these young girls who r being trained to handle people who r sick r in the high-risk of contracting sexual diseases? Shldnt nurses have high-values? Is there a need for these students to 'store' hundreds of syringes in their rented rm?
E-mails to the private hospital concerned didnt meet w any response. Worse, calls to the College of Nursing is screened by secretary who agree this is a norm in the College, hence warrant no further details or contacts.
Nice to see someone taking the initiative to blog on medical issues affecting Malaysians. There are tons of issues to discuss. Though I dont always agree with your statements, keep it up. We need people like you here.
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