PETALING JAYA: The Negeri Sembilan health department has apologised after a disabled sportswriter was denied Covid-19 vaccine at a centre in Tampin because he is a dialysis patient.
Its director Dr Harlina Abdul Rashid said it was regrettable that staff at the Dewan Perdana vaccination site had made a mistake in turning away Satwant Singh Dhaliwal on Tuesday.
She said Satwant should have been informed that dialysis patients in the state would be vaccinated at government hospitals before he had gone to the centre on a MySejahtera appointment.
Harlina said it was wrong to tell Satwant, who lives in Tampin and gets his dialysis done at Pulau Sebang thrice a week, to get his vaccine at the Melaka general hospital, 37km away.
“I have given instructions for him to be vaccinated at the Tampin district hospital at the earliest date,” she said.
Harlina’s swift action came as a relief to Satwant who also received a shocking notification via MySejahtera yesterday that he was out of the vaccination programme.
It said that since he was unable to make the appointment for the first dose on Tuesday and required pre-vaccination assessment, “you will be given an opportunity to re-enrol in the vaccination programme at a future date.”
“What rubbish! I was there but not allowed to take the vaccination,” said Satwant, who went for his four-hour dialysis at 4.30am to keep his 9am vaccination appointment.
Satwant expressed his frustration over another MySejahtera notification last week that came nine hours after the scheduled inoculation at Dewan Perdana.
He said he appealed against the delay in notification and was given a new date on Monday “without asking me when my dialysis is on”.
Satwant, who is also visually impaired, said “baffling decisions” by the staff at the centre came when he handed over his blood test results and prescription of medications to the front desk.
“I told them I was a certified OKU (disabled person) with blindness due to a cornea transplant as well as retinal bleeding and had been on dialysis for the last six years.
“They told me I could not be vaccinated at the centre and had to go to the Tampin district hospital but exceptions could be made if the go-ahead was given by district health officer.
“I felt tired after being confined to a wheelchair after four hours of dialysis and decided to leave after 70 minutes of waiting,” he said.
Some 45 minutes later, a doctor called Satwant and asked him to return to the centre in 15 minutes and take his vaccination.
He said he requested for transport to the centre, which is 800m from his home, because he was recovering from post-dialysis effects.
Further, he told the doctor that he would not be able to make it within 15 minutes because “that’s how long I will take to lock my house”.
“Instead, I was told that I would face issues with MySejahtera and will not be able to scan my presence anywhere.
“Being a clinically extremely vulnerable person, I am angry because they left me unprotected,” said Satwant. - FMT
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