Hospital Sungai Buloh is investigating claims that women in labour were forced to sleep on the hospital floor, after pictures allegedly showing this went viral.
Facebook user Khairana Rahman posted four pictures claiming she received poor treatment while in labour at the hospital in September, and that other patients were made to lie on the floor.
“Sometimes there are too many people (in the maternity ward). It is seasonal.
“The pictures allegedly showing that women were made to lie on the floor is not true. We provided them with beds, on top of chairs.
“However, we will investigate the matter,” Hospital Sungai Buloh director Dr Khalid Ibrahim told Malaysiakini.
He also vowed to investigate claims that the staff were rude to the patients, and promised improvements.
“We always remind them on their soft skills. This might be an isolated case but we will investigate through our Obstetrics and Gynaecological Department chief.
“We will take action if it is found that our staff members breached work ethics,” he said.
He said the hospital has five maternity wards, while a first class ward was converted to a maternity ward to meet demand.
“So I don’t understand (what was written in the Facebook posting) because we provide sufficient beds, even when the maternity ward is full.
“Those who are not yet going through contractions will wait at the chairs provided or at home. We usually advise them to stay home until they go into labour,” he said.
Mums sometimes need to wait 48 hours for bed
About 50 babies are born in the hospital a day, he said, with up to 10 caesarean births.
This works out to about 13,000 patients a year in the maternity ward, he said, causing a real strain on the hospital.
“If the maternity ward is full, we will inform those who want to give birth here that there is a 48 hour wait for a bed and they will need to sign an agreement to say they are willing to wait.”
He also urged those with complaints to contact the hospital directly, so as not to raise negative perception against public health providers.
The government has allocated RM23.03 billion to the Health Ministry next year, just under nine percent of the federal budget.
The ministry was allocated RM21.72 billion in 2015, but suffered a RM300 million cut due to austerity measures after the drop in global oil prices.
Health Minister Dr S Subramaniam said services did not suffer because the cuts only affected budgets for conferences and campaigns.
Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC), however, had its budget slashed from RM510 million in 2014 to RM387 million.
UMMC’s budget falls under the Higher Education Ministry, which will suffer a whopping RM2 billion-odd cut under Budget 2016.
The ministry was allocated RM15.79 billion in 2015, and will get RM13.38 billion under Budget 2016.
The Health Ministry's budget has grown in ringgit terms, but the portion of development expenditure has shrunk.
[Source: treasury.gov.my / Graphics: Nigel Aw/ Malaysiakini]
[Source: treasury.gov.my / Graphics: Nigel Aw/ Malaysiakini]
-Mkini
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