KAPIT: Residents of Nanga Bena have not come across any medical team despite claims of their monthly visit there.
The state Health Department claims that it has been sending a medical team to Nanga Bena, a settlement of 22 longhouses 40km from here, since the clinic there was closed in 2008 after part of the structure was destroyed by a landslide.
The claim was made by the department’s director Dr Zulkifli Jantan recently following a report by thesundaypost on the plight of the people there having to spend at least RM40 on transport to get simple medicine such as Panadol from Kapit Hospital.
However, Mikai Lebah, headman of Rumah Mikai, the longhouse located just a five-minute walk from the site of the clinic, told thesundaypost on Friday that they had not seen any medical team visiting the area.
“So far we have heard no news about the medical team from Kapit coming here to provide medical treatment,” he said.
Mikai added if indeed the team had been visiting the area, the locals might not know of their presence as there was no notice of their monthly visit.
He urged the Health Department to provide every headman in the area with the monthly schedule of the visit to the Ng Bena Clinic so that the locals could converge to the clinic on that day.
“Please highlight this issue for us as we have no one to turn to,” Mikai appealed.
Despite being abandoned for four years the clinic is still in good condition as some residents from Rh Mikai are putting up at the staff quarters to look after the clinic on a voluntary basis and cut the grass in the compound.
When contacted, Assistant Minister of Public Health Dr Jerip Susil said he would visit Ng Bena Clinic soon to find out the root cause of the problem and address it.
He said he was compiling the latest information in order to find a solution to the longstanding issue.
“I have talked to Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing (Baleh assemblyman and Minister of Land Development) on the matter. On my part, we will act and address the problem,” Dr Jerip said.