Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa said her ministry is probing claims that newborn babies had been “snatched” from their stateless mothers at a government hospital in Sabah.
She said that such incidents should not happen at any medical facility in the country and that her ministry would follow up on the police report lodged by the Sabah State Health Department to deny the allegations.
Over the weekend, Sabah State Health Department director Dr Asits Sanna said the department had immediately launched an investigation in response to a Malaysiakini report titled 'Baby snatching: How stateless mums lose their infants in Sabah hospital', which was published on Friday.
Asits claimed that the department found the allegation to be untrue as there were no such instances in any government hospital in the state. The department then lodged a report at the Lahad Datu district police headquarters.
However, Zaleha (above) said a separate investigation into the allegation was underway.
“There are many levels of investigation and my ministry is carrying out a separate investigation into these allegations.
“This is something very serious and I take it very seriously if the allegations are true."
She said she will be going to Lahad Datu to speak to the hospital staff and patients
"It is my responsibility to go down and meet the staff and patients. We really need to make sure that this does not happen in the future if it has been happening.
"Our team from the ministry is conducting the investigation led by deputy director general Dr Asmayani Khalib," she told Malaysiakini.
Malaysiakini had in its report recorded multiple cases where stateless women have lost or been threatened they will lose custody of their children, who were treated at Hospital Lahad Datu.
In one case, a hospital investigation found a mother committed murder-suicide with her baby after she was told she could custody of her five-month-old baby, and who was pressured to settle the large hospital bill for her infant's treatment.
The stateless community does not have access to subsidised healthcare and must pay upfront for registration, tests and treatment at public healthcare facilities, often amounting to thousands of ringgit.
On allegations by child activist Hartini Zainuddin that similar incidents were taking place in Peninsular Malaysia, Zaleha declined to comment but said the ministry would investigate the complaints made. - Mkini
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