Rep calls for urgent completion of Petra Jaya hospital

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LONG QUEUE NUMBER: See showing the ticket number when he visited SGH A&E Department last week.

KUCHING: The Health Ministry should expedite the construction of the new hospital in Petra Jaya to cater for the people in that area and ease the overcrowding at the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) here..

Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How said the ministry could no longer drag its feet building the new hospital as everyone in the city needing emergency treatment had to seek for treatment at the A&E department of SGH.

As an immediate measure to cater for the needs of Petra Jaya residents, he urged the Health Ministry to immediately upgrade and set up an A&E department at the Mother and Child Clinic at Jalan Gita or staff medical doctors in at least one of the 1Malaysia clinics there.

According to him, patients pouring in to the SGH A&E department had to wait for long hours before being attended by doctors.

“A visit to the SGH A&E Department on any evening is always a distressing experience. The A&E department is always filled with patients, many of them complaining about the long hours of waiting to be examined by the doctors.

“No one can fault the doctors and medical staff at the A&E Department in the SGH because all the doctors in the consultation rooms are always occupied with the patients,” See, who is also state PKR vice chairman told a press conference here yesterday.

He had personally experienced the long hours of getting treatment from the A&E department when he went there for treatment for leg injury last week.

To ease the congestion at SGH particularly the A&E Department in the evening, the ministry should also keep the polyclinics and district hospitals at Tanah Putih, Jalan Maong Utama and Kota Sentosa open in the evening and staff at least one of the clinics in Petra Jaya with experienced doctors.

“Other than the polyclinic at Jalan Masjid which is opened until 8.30pm, none of the other polyclinics are opened in the evening.”

He noted there are four polyclinics and six 1Malaysia clinics in the vicinity of Kuching. The six 1Malaysia clinics are at Bandar Baru Semariang, Bintawa, Demak Laut, Tabuan Melayu, Matang and Kota Padawan.

“Even though these clinics operate from 10am to 10pm, they are staffed only with paramedics and medical officers.”

See hoped that the polyclinic under construction behind the state mosque in Petra Jaya, would have an A&E department.

He also urged the ministry to make the A&E Department in Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) Heart Centre in Kota Samarahan fully functional to help cater for the needs of the people there.