Claim of poor treatment by doctor under probe

(Bernama) -- The Health Ministry is probing claim of bad treatment received by a patient at a government hospital in Penang, the Dewan Negara heard today.

Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya said the alleged incident reported at Seberang Jaya Hospital (HSJ) was not supposed to happen.

"A doctor needs to treat all patients, no matter old, young, poor, rich, even the enemy because this is the doctor's charter.

"Releasing anger on a patient should not have happened," he said in reply to a supplementary question from Senator Datuk Dr Mashitah Ibrahim who raised media reports of bad treatment by a doctor at HSJ during question and answer session. State Assemblyman Datuk Roslan Saidin (BN-Pinang Tunggal) yesterday produced several patients claiming bad treatment by doctors at two hospitals in Penang.

One of the patients, Syahida Saad, 27, told saisd she went to HSJ on May 28 to fix a broken metal piece in her thigh but was denied treatment by the doctor and sent home.

However, after making a complaint to Roslan, HSJ called her back and carried out surgery to remove the metal piece inserted into the thigh following a road accident which killed her husband on Nov 7 last year.

Hilmi told Senator Datuk Syed Ibrahim Kader that the current doctor to patient ratio is one doctor for every 700 patients.

"The ratio will be reduced to one doctor for every 400 patients by 2020. Many hospitals are short of doctors and staff.

"There is a move to bring back retired doctors and many are willing to return to work as doctors including former directors."

To the original question from Syed Ibrahim on the waiting period at government hospitals and clinics, he said the monitoring system eMASA showed that 87.3 percent of patients waited less than 30 minutes for treatment.