SAPP to submit petition to PM

KOTA KINABALU, October 14, 2009: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) plans to submit the petition on the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak during his visit to Sabah next month, said its Wanita Chief Melanie Chia.

Najib is expected to visit Sabah on 8 November, 2009.

Melanie noted that 5 November will also mark the 365th days Kota Kinabalu city is without a general hospital and the one and only referral hospital for the State.

She noted that SAPP had on 29 August 2009 launched a signature campaign demanding for the Government to take immediate and concrete action to resolve the chaotic and distressing medical service affecting the people of Sabah, after the QEH tower block was declared unsafe by the relevant authority in last November.

Ever since then, the patients in the state, their family as well as the doctors and the medical staff had been coping with a tough and stressful situation; QEH patients had been and are still being sent to the various district hospitals besides the Sabah Medical Centre (SMC) for treatment. This had inevitably caused great inconvenient and stress to the patients, their family as well as the doctors and the medical staff.

“The chaotic situation in the QEH especially at its Intensive Care Unit (ICU) was even more distressing for the patients’ family,” noted Melanie who is also the Luyang State assemblywoman.

The low morale of the doctors and the medical staff also dealt a severe blow to the standard and quality of medical service rendered to the patients in the State.

She noted that although the Government had in last month formalized the purchase of SMC, it unfortunately is still inadequate and ineffective of resolving the pressing issue. This was especially true due to the fact that it will take quite some times before SMC fully hand over the facility to the Ministry of Health and subsequently for the later to carry out the necessary expansion works.

Melanie reiterated that the Government’s failure in resolving the QEH debacle quickly is disappointing, unacceptable and especially an insult to the PM’s motto of “1Malaysia. People 1st. Performance Now”.

She stressed that the Federal government should immediately allocate funds to expedite the reconstruction of the QEH tower block as well as to resume its long stalled expansion programs. The delay in resolving the medical services in Kota Kinabalu reflected tbe neglect by the government in the provision of these facilities and personnel.

She thus called on the people of Sabah, those living in Kota Kinabalu especially, to immediately come forward to support the petition before it officially ends on 5 Nov.

Support to the petition can be done either through the internet via http://www.sapp.org.my or can be signed at all SAPP offices.