No blood tests due to insufficient funds

Overcrowded Sabah hospitals, insufficient medicines and poor services are a bane of Sabahans who cannot afford to seek private healthcare.

PENAMPANG: Healthcare conditions in Sabah are so deplorable that patients are either forced to sleep on the floor or are being turned away from overcrowded hospitals.

Describing the situation as “unacceptable”, State Reform Party (STAR) women chief Melanie Annol said there were even claims that hospitals were short of medicines and offered inadequate services.

“Everybody knows the twin tower Queen Elizabeth Hospital [QEH] in the state capital is far behind schedule, depriving Sabahans of a modern hospital.

“But lack of medicines and inadequate facilities had hit us worse, and it is unacceptable as Sabah is a very rich state,” she said in a statement here today.

Annol, who also heads STAR in Penampang, recounted a personal experience involving her mother.

“Recently my mum had a first-hand experience whereby her scheduled blood test could not be conducted by QEH because we were told that the hospital has run out of the chemical to be used to conduct blood test.

“The hospital staff said that their ‘peruntukan’ (allocation) for year 2012 was not enough because of the increased number of patients, thanks to the alien population in Sabah,” Annol said.

According to Annol, there were also a few elderly Chinese ladies who were turned away for the same reason.

“One was overheard saying, ‘Saya punya laukung [husband] hanya taxi driver dan saya suri rumah. Kami tidak mampu pergi ke private klinik untuk check darah dan ambil ubat…’” she added.

They were asked to come back the following week to see whether the supply from Kuala Lumpur “datang atau tidak”, Annol said.

“Can you imagine how deplorable and sorry the state of our healthcare has become. This is not uncommon.

“If everything has to wait for Kuala Lumpur, what happens if there is an emergency. These people who cannot afford to go private hospitals are subjected to such heart-rending situations.

“The stress itself will kill us! How sad for Sabahans, waiting for crumbs to drop from Malaya master’s table..” she said.