The Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) is seeking donations for Covid-19 equipment through e-commerce platform Lazada.
Donations range from RM50 to RM500 and Lazada will donate RM1 for every RM4 donated, up to RM200,000.
The donation drive was first publicised by UMMC on Jan 22.
The fundraiser initially mislabelled UMMC as Universiti Malaysia instead of Universiti Malaya. This was rectified after netizens pointed out the error.
Netizens have questioned why the teaching hospital needed to resort to a fundraiser, with some calling it a failure of the government to provide necessary allocations for frontliners.
Taking to Twitter, there were those who questioned whether the initiative was a scam, while others pointed out that it must be a dire sign for a public-funded hospital to resort to raising its own funds.
UMMC is under the purview of the Higher Education Ministry, not the Health Ministry.
However, it is a Covid-19 hospital.
Under Budget 2021, the teaching hospital's allocation under the Higher Education Ministry was reduced by RM118,000.
When contacted, UMMC head of corporate communications Yahaya Ahmad clarified that the fundraiser was a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative by Lazada.
He referred to a statement by UMMC director Dr Nazirah Hasan which stated that the hospital welcomes any donations from companies, NGOs or individuals, towards its Covid-19 management fund.
"Through their initiative, Lazada had provided a platform to host the fundraising drive and selected various institutions, including UMMC, to receive the donations.
"UMMC is very thankful and highly appreciates the donations and support from all parties," said Nazirah.
The statement did not elaborate or address netizens' concerns on whether UMMC is currently facing a shortage of resources or limited allocations, hence the need to raise funds.
Yahaya this morning told Malaysiakini a meeting was ongoing to discuss UMMC's response but subsequent attempts to seek the outcome of the meeting had failed. - Mkini
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