SAPP rebuts Liow Tiong Lai
 KOTA KINABALU, August
10,
2010: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) wants Health Minister Datuk Dr Liow
Tiong Lai to keep his word this time that healthcare issue in Sabah ,
particularly in the State Capital will be properly addressed.
Failing which, he should gracefully step down as the Health Minister and
publicly apologise to the people of Sabah .
SAPP In formation Chief, Chong Pit Fah asserted that this is only
appropriate in view of the fact that Liow had repeatedly announced the
renovation of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital II (QEHII) on three occasions
in the past since its purchase from Sabah Medical Centre (SMC), that it
would be completed within six months to resolve the problem of acute
shortage of hospital beds in the hospital.
Liow when visiting the QEHII on Sunday said that by end of year 2011 there
would be extra 500 beds and by end of 2012 with the completion of the Twin
Tower at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital I another 600 beds would be
available.
On Liow's contention that Sabah is not facing a healthcare crisis, Chong
countered that if this was true, then why the government had to buy a
"second hand" hospital from SMC.
"Why the government need to take over a second hand hospital if there is
no problem in Sabah's healthcare system and why there is a need to rent
the Ling Zhi Centre in kepayan, which was not even designed-and-built to
be a hospital but now being utilised to ward patients?" he asked.
He further noted that the situation was actually so desperate that even
the entire sixth floor of the QEHII (formerly SMC building), which used to
be the specialists consultant office was also turned into wards despite
not having the necessary facility.
"Patients are even being placed in the holding rooms," he claimed, adding
that there were also many occasion where patients from the City had to be
sent to other district hospitals due to insufficient hospital beds here.
"Even an ex-minister who had to go for a knee surgery was sent to the
hospital in Sandakan and there are many instances where patients from Kota
Kinabalu being referred to nearby district hospitals like Beaufort," he
said in a statement issued here Monday.
Chong also noted that Liow had even admitted that the contractor doing
renovation works at the SMC was behind schedule which aggravated the
healthcare situation in the city, following the decanting of Queen
Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) main tower block, after it was declared unsafe
for occupation in November 2008. Besides being the sole General Hospital
for the State Capital, QEH is also the sole referral hospital in the
state.
As the result of this, patients from all over the State who are supposed
to be treated at QEH were being distributed to the various district
hospitals besides the QEHII, the Bukit Padang Hospital , Likas Hospital
and the Ling Zhi Centre.
"SAPP hope the Health Minister will keep his words this time and not just
another 'lip service' to pacify the public resentment over the chaotic
healthcare system in the State," he said.
He also urged the Government representatives and apologists to stop saying
that SAPP was politicizing the healthcare issue, in particular the long
delay in the reconstruction of the QEH main tower block.
He categorically asserted as a responsible-and-concerned political party,
SAPP was merely championing a significant issue that genuinely affects the
people at large. |
