KUCHING: Sarawak has entered a phase where more health facilities should be provided in major areas such as Sibu and Miri to meet the medical demands of the growing population.
Due to overcrowding at the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH), there is now an urgent need to build at least one more state hospital in Miri, said SUPP president Senator Datuk Prof Dr Sim Kui Hian.
“Looking at Malaysia’s health structure, each state must be provided with one state general hospital under the Ministry of Health. This structure is not relevant to Sarawak as we are the largest state and our population is scattered. It is only logical that we should have more than one state general hospital,” Dr Sim told reporters after officiating at a health carnival at Tanah Puteh Health Clinic yesterday.
He added that during a recent visit to SGH, he was stunned when he saw that the number of patients exceeded the number of beds at the wards.
“There are no longer enough beds at the hospital. The beds were only vacant if a person went home after being discharged, or if one of the patients dies,” he said.
The perennial issue of needing more specialist centres and state hospitals was brought up by him in Dewan Negara on more than one occasion with not much impact, as his voice alone was not enough to move the August House, he said.
“We must fight for the attention from the Ministry of Health as they are overseeing a total of 138 hospitals in Malaysia. I hope that every Sarawakian politician would be able to support me on this issue as we have kept quiet for far too long,” he stressed.
According to Dr Sim, by setting up more specialist centres or state hospitals in Miri or Sibu, Sarawak would be able to tackle the overcrowding issue in SGH and handle deadly outbreaks such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) more effectively.
On another note, Dr Sim also pointed out that Sarawak has two oncologists – the only state in Malaysia to have two of these medical specialists for the treatment of cancer.
“Sadly, we have the specialists but we do not have the right facilities. I really hope that the Ministry of Health would consider setting up a cancer specialist hospital in the state given that it (cancer) is the second highest factor contributing to deaths in the state,” he said.
Smaller states like Sabah, he pointed out, has a Women and Family Specialist Centre despite Kota Kinabalu having a smaller population size as compared to Kuching.
“Do not get me wrong – it is actually a good thing that other states are given these types of medical facilities. It is just that we in Sarawak also deserve to be treated fairly. It is no longer a want, but it is already an urgent need for the state to have all these basic health facilities in place,” added Dr Sim.
Meanwhile, the one-day health carnival yesterday saw several activities taking place such as free health screenings and exhibitions.
Representing the state Health Department director Datu Dr Zulkifli Jantan was his deputy and carnival advisor Dr Siti Khadijah Ahmad Tajuddin.
Among those present were the Tanah Puteh Health Clinic family health specialist Dr Janet Michael and SUPP members.