SAPP: Solve Sabahans healthcare woes immediately

KOTA KINABALU - Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) has called on the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to immediately intervene to tackle the deteriorating and depressing medical and healthcare services in the State.

Its Information Chief Chong Pit Fah claimed that ever since the government declared the 10-storey Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) tower block unsafe on Oct 23, 2008 followed by its complete evacuation in the following month of the same year, the State medical and healthcare services had continued to be in disarray, till to date.

This was due to the fact that QEH is not only the general hospital for Kota Kinabalu City, but also the referral hospital for the rest of the government hospitals throughout the State. 

To make matter worse, the State is currently also facing an acute shortage of senior and experienced medical personnel, the Specialists especially. 

According to the Council of the Justices of the Peace, Sabah (Majaps), based on a data collected in July 2007, the rate of patients per doctor in Sabah was one to 8,973 and there were cases of very sick people have to wait for months for a specialist doctor.

Chong said he reliably learnt that such a situation was especially pressing in such places like Sandakan, Lahad Datu, Tawau and Semporna, where many patients who are suffering from chronic ailments like heart disease, were put on the waiting list due to shortage of Specialists. 

"These poor patients who can't afford private medical treatment are currently no different from those convicts on the death row. And the present unresolved, chaotic situation in the QEH is not helping too," he lamented.

He claimed to have also reliably learnt that many patients have since passed away either while waiting for treatment, or due to complications after treatment, largely due to a poor set up at the hospital. 

"How many more precious lives need to be lost and how long more the people of Sabah must suffer, before things improved?" he fervently questioned.

Chong who is also SAPP Kepayan chief thus urged Najib to immediately intervene to end the sufferings and "senseless killing" of the people of Sabah.

"This is the best opportunity for the Prime Minister to prove his sincerity and to live up to his signature slogan of "People First, Performance Now"," he stressed.

He reiterated that the medical and healthcare issue is yet another testimony of Sabahans being treated worse than foreign immigrants, unlike fellow Malaysians living in Peninsular Malaysia who would always get the immediate and full attention from the Federal leaders and Ministers, should they face the similar problem.

He contended that if the present Federal Barisan Nasional (BN) Government can afford to allocate millions of ringgit to build a fully air-conditioned and modern pedestrian walkway at Bukit Bintang, there is no reason for it to continue to treat Sabahans worse than foreign immigrants. 

He backed-up his depiction by noting that many foreign immigrants who were originally illegal immigrants from the neighbouring countries are now enjoying better treatment than the bona fide natives of Sabah, after they became citizens through dubious means like false statutory declaration and the infamous 'Project IC'.