Power failure at QEH

Chong: It’s time for the PM to step in to stop the 'killings' 

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has been urged to personally look into the public healthcare fiasco affecting the people of Sabah.

Urging this was Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) Information Chief Chong Pit Fah while responding to public complaints over the chaotic situation in Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) here, last night, due to an inconsistent power supply which started at around 4pm and lasted till midnight.

“The healthcare situation in Sabah has reached a critical stage that there’s no point appealing or even shouting at our useless, incompetent Federal Health Minister anymore. It’s time for our 1Malaysia Prime Minister himself to personally look into the matter now,” he stressed.

He thus proposed that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to make it a point to take some times out during his schedule visit to Sabah this week, to conduct an inspection and an inquiry into the healthcare situation in Sabah, and to immediately come out with effective measures to address the pressing problem.

Chong who is also SAPP Kepayan CLC Chairman also wants the Prime Minister to replace the present Health Minister with someone who is more capable.

“Whoever is in charge of looking after the State healthcare services too should take the full responsibility over what happened in QEH last night,” he added.

He claimed to have received complaints from the various quarters including the patients’ families and some medical staff, over the chaotic situation at the hospital last night, where quite a number of its patients had to be transferred to the nearby QEH II and the Likas Women and Children Hospital, due to an inconsistent power supply there following a power cut.

“I was informed that the hospital’s back-up generator sets were insufficient to cope with the situation. Some patients even had their drip attached when there were transferred. The Emergency Unit stopped accepting patients at around 9pm.

“And what was even more depressing was many blood palettes had to be disposed off in the later part of the night, which is a great waste of the blood donors’ effort of donating their blood to the Blood Bank,” he claimed.

Noting that the incident clearly demonstrated the Barisan Nasional (BN) Government’s incompetence and uncaring attitude towards the sufferings of Sabah people, Chong stressed that the State government too should conduct an independent inquiry into the incident, and to come out with a full report on this.

“As I have said many times in the past since the QEH issue first cropped up in December 2008, and I repeat, all the state BN leaders are no different to accomplices in homicides, as it was a public knowledge that there had been many premature deaths of patients seeking treatment in the public hospitals, largely due to the current poor medical service in the state,” he reiterated.

He hoped there were no cases of serious complication affecting the patients following what happened last night.

Besides this, he also urged those affected patients and their families to boldly come forward to tell their stories over the said incident, so as to compel the Government and the Ministry concerned to take the matter seriously and to take serious measures to prevent it from happening again in future.