Crash of the frontline

My SinChew
by Chong Lip Teck/translated by Dominic Loh

Health minister Liow Tiong Lai said some of the A(H1N1) victims were killed because of delayed treatments, according to the analysis done on flu fatality.

He said his ministry would be investigating why treatments had been delayed.

How to investigate? By what method? I would like to suggest that the minister make a visit to the GH, or demand that hospital superintendents submit accurate and truthful reports in order to find out what actually has happened.

Sungai Buloh Hospital, yes, the one first singled out for treating the deadly flu, is perpetually packed with members of the public seeking treatment. They or their family have recently presented the symptoms of flu such as coughing, fever, etc., and have taken heed of the ministry's advice to visit the hospital for examination.

Whenever a person feels sick, weakened or his resistance compromised, he should visit a doctor and go home to rest with the doctor's prescriptions. The health ministry has also advised the public to avoid crowded places whenever they have fever.

However, some of them cannot help but get squeezed in the crowd, such as patients seeking medical attention in government hospitals.

According to news reports, a patient has to wait an average of three hours to get medical attention at Sungai Buloh Hospital.

They have to wake up early in the morning and wait for their turns until midday. Just imagine, it is already unbearable being sick, yet these people still have to drag along their exhausted bodies waiting in the tightly packed hospital lounge saturated with the stench of medicines for hours. I believe even a healthy person may find it intolerable having to wait for so long, let alone sick people.

Someone points at a notice on the wall which reads senior citizens and children would get priority for medical attention, saying it is nothing more than a decorative poster as his child has been waiting for the entire morning while the hospital has not increased the number of service counters or get the patients' temperatures taken first despite an obvious increase in the number of visitors.

But why don't they go to a private hospital or clinic? A patient says private establishments do not provide flu scanning services and they normally advise the patients to visit government hospitals to do the flu test.

This explains why government hospitals have been packed to the seams.

Given the fact that government hospitals are always understaffed, I'm afraid the patients' illnesses will only get intensified because of the delays.

With the flu getting more and more serious and the number of fatality on the rise, government hospitals cannot be excused for not providing the most comprehensive, effective and prompt services, being the primary, if not the only, treatement centres for the deadly flu.

In addition, from what the public have read in newspaper reports, they find that what the minister has said are differeent from what they have personally experienced.

Even as the ministry has kept assuring the public that adequate preventive measures have been taken, why do the public still feel insecure? Is it because they have been overly anxious or because the minister has been misinformed by our public health personnel? (By CHONG LIP TECK/Translated by DOMINIC LOH/Sin Chew Daily)