Rep challenges ministry to address insufficient medical specialists in Swak’s hospitals

Irene Chang

SIBU (April 22): The Ministry of Health (MoH) has been challenged to address the lack of medical specialists in Sarawak’s hospitals.

Bukit Assek assemblywoman Irene Chang said these hospitals not only lacked specialists such as anaesthetists, but also required infectious disease specialists, cardiologists, and others to either improve the care of patients or to support exhausted local specialists in their fight against Covid-19.

“Only if we have a healthy healthcare system with all available manpower and resources can our hospitals and medical personnel fight against the pandemic effectively,” she said in a media statement.

She was referring to MoH’s announcement on April 15 that 430 Health Ministry personnel would be sent to Sarawak to assist in the effort to contain the Covid-19 situation here.

Chang questioned whether these health workers were already in Sarawak as they were supposed to have arrived yesterday (April 21).

“And how many of them are specialists and how have they been distributed among the hospitals here?”

Chang pointed out the Health Minister had acknowledged Sarawak needed 1,436 health workers, including medical officers, assistant medical officers, microbiological science officers, nurses, and drivers.

“Since 430 are supposed to arrive on April 21, when are the remaining medical personnel going to reach Sarawak and would they include any specialists?” she queried.

According to her, insufficient manpower and resources here had resulted in less urgent surgeries being postponed.

“Even scheduled patients to see specialists in the polyclinics have been postponed a few times. We all know that Covid-19 is not going to disappear in a month or two.

“And while we look after Covid-19 patients, we cannot continue to neglect the non-Covid-19 patients. They cannot be made to wait indefinitely to receive treatment,” she stressed.

She said it was widely acknowledged that the Covid-19 pandemic, which is far from over, has revealed many things lacking in Sibu’s healthcare system.

“All this time they have been mostly swept under the carpet. When the hospital lacks urgent medical equipment and resources, private individuals and companies would step in to provide for them.

“While this philanthropist and community spirit is much to be lauded and encouraged, it is not right for MoH and the state Health Department to continue ignoring our patients here and to leave the people of Sibu to our own devices to keep our hospital and medical front-liners afloat,” she stressed.

She welcomed the state Health director’s announcement on Sunday that 37 more ventilators would be sent to five Sarawak hospitals, including Sibu Hospital.

“Hopefully the ventilators to be sent will be in good functioning order,” she said.

Earlier this week, after Chang revealed eight out of 10 ventilators sent to Sarawak last week were non-operational, MoH had concluded the machines could have been damaged during transportation.

The ministry said the machines, which had been used at Sungai Buloh Hospital, had been tested before they were delivered and were in good condition.

MoH also promised to send 11 new replacement ventilators.

Chang added ventilators need anaesthetists to operate.

“Since the onset of Covid-19 in Sibu, I understand that our number of anaesthetists has been increased from four to 10 as of today. Sibu Hospital now has three wards managing ICU patients with more than 30 patients (including non-Covid-19 cases) and anaesthetists are needed to operate the ventilators for patients as well as in emergency surgeries,” she said.

As these extra anaesthetists were sent to help with Covid-19 patients, Chang questioned whether they would leave once the pandemic is over.

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