In a withering salvo, Bukit Assek assemblyperson Irene Chang has claimed the Covid-19 pandemic situation in Sibu, Sarawak has exposed that the healthcare system there has been sidelined through the years.
"Today in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, we Sibuans, pay the ultimate price of being treated like a stepson by not only the federal government but also by the Sarawak state Health Ministry.
"Recently on Jan 9, 2021, the Minister of Local Government and Housing, Dr Sim Kim Hui has called for the decentralisation of public health care in order to improve the health services in Sarawak.
"I agree with him that the federal government has failed us in our healthcare system. However, for government hospitals outside Kuching, the Sarawak Health Ministry has also neglected us," Chang (above) said in a statement today.
Chang claimed that Sibu Hospital is one of the neglected ones.
"All these years, the state Health Ministry has centralised too much power and resources and manpower in Sarawak General Hospital in Kuching.”
She said that sadly, most of the time, these distributions were not done equitably and that the main hospitals in Sibu, Miri, Bintulu and Sarikei were often left to their own devices to find the necessary funds to purchase the equipment which they may urgently need for their own hospital.
"The reported news on the private donations of the PCR machines to run the Covid-19 swab test in both Sibu Hospital and Miri Hospital are the cases in point.
"Likewise, it was also reported that the setting up of the two testing laboratories in Bintulu was also borne by public donations. Why should these hospitals outside Kuching be left to themselves to source for the necessary funds to purchase these machines?" asked Chang.
She said with Sibu now being the epicentre of Covid-19 in Sarawak, the two PCR machines are still insufficient as arrangements have to be made to send more than 1,000 samples daily to Kuala Lumpur and Kuching.
"Surely, the State Health Department should know by now that Sibu Hospital still needs more PCR machines not only for Covid-19 but also to test any organism with accuracy with faster results."
Chang said other than funds and resources, the people outside Kuching over the years, have paid the price of being deprived of specialist care in their hospital.
"While Sarawak General Hospital is swarming with specialists and sub-specialists, the hospitals in Sibu, Miri and Bintulu are consistently short and deprived of these specialist care," she said.
Ironically last month, Malaysiakini reported the problem of healthcare access to people in even more remote areas such as Lawas, a town of 40,000 in the Limbang division which borders Sabah and Brunei. It is 190km from Kota Kinabalu and 230km from Miri and the local hospital has no specialist services. - Mkini
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