Sabah in ‘critical medical situation’, says ex-minister

 

Darell Leiking wants the Sabah government to allocate emergency funds for medical equipment and vaccines.

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government must allocate emergency funds to address the escalating Covid-19 situation in the state, Warisan deputy president Darell Leiking said.

Following media reports of vaccine shortages and lack of medical equipment, including beds for patients, the Penampang MP said the state must admit that Sabah is in a “serious and critical medical situation”.

“It must now present an emergency allocation to supplement what the federal government has continuously failed to do for Sabah,” the former international trade and industry minister said in a statement here today.

According to Leiking, many Sabahans and medical experts had consistently given warnings, recommendations and ideas to the federal and state governments on how to contain and mitigate the pandemic in the state.

“However, it seems that both have not taken these ideas and recommendations.”

He also claimed that there was now talk of a “standing order” to doctors and nurses in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital here to prioritise younger Covid-19 patients due to insufficient beds and equipment at the intensive care unit (ICU).

He stressed that the responsibility should not be pushed to doctors, nurses, or other medical staff to tell families that the hospital could not accept patients because of the supposed standing order.

Instead, he said the Sabah government, which he contended “never had the courage to stand up assertively” against Putrajaya and demand that Sabah be prioritised, should be the one answerable.

Leiking outlined a list of what he thought the Sabah government must do, starting with allocating funds to buy oxygen tanks, ventilators, and medical equipment to treat all Sabahans young and old.

He added that this should be implemented immediately while demanding more help from Putrajaya.

“The state government must also start engaging the expertise and facilities of private clinics in Sabah and even from outside the state.

“It must also engage medical experts in the military to combine their current strategic approach to resolve the pandemic in Sabah,” he said.

Leiking said the state must also deal directly with vaccine producers for additional doses, secure more single-dose Covid-19 vaccines and even consider borrowing vaccines from Selangor.

In addition, the government should engage medical experts who were experienced in Covid-19 treatment regimes, just as India, Indonesia and other countries had done so.

“It is also proposed, just as suggested in social media previously, that the Sabah government should consider allocating an aggrievement entitlement of not less than RM5,000 to the immediate family of those who have died from Covid-19,” he said. - FMT