By Patrick Lee - Free Malaysia Today
FULL REPORT KUALA LUMPUR: This could be an attempt to either worsen your condition and prolong your stay in hospital or just sheer negligence on the part of the kitchen staff.
Either way, the Auditor-General's Report serves some unpalatable truths about the dishes in hospitals.
The report stated that the Sultan Ismail Hospital in Johor was churning out a low quality diet for its patients, with its fried chicken still oozing with blood.
Up north in Penang, the general hospital there was serving its patients with blood-curling vegetable soups with bits of hair or fur in them.
"This can cause food poisoning and other diseases," read the report. Food operations from both hospitals were outsourced to Besta Corp Sdn Bhd.
The Penang Hospital was also caught serving smaller portions in its menus.
The report also found that patients at the Sungai Buloh and Ampang hospitals were only given one choice in meals, with no alternative menus (including vegetarian).
Many of the hospitals (with the exception of Sultan Ismail) also did not have equipment used to keep their food at a certain temperature.
According to the report, the Health Ministry signed a RM67.92 million contract with two companies to supply food to seven different hospitals over a three-year period.
Between May and September 2009, the Auditor-General's Department inspected five of these hospitals, namely the Sungai Buloh, Ampang, Selayang, Penang and Sultan Ismail hospitals.
A total of RM42.29 million was allocated for meals and refreshments at these hospitals. As of June 2009, a total of RM36.39 million had been spent.
Stale grub for soldiers
On the military front, Malaysian soldiers were being fed stale fish and vegetables, as discovered in Malacca's Terendak camp.
Meanwhile, army camps in Sungai Petani, Lok Kawi, Rasah and Terendak had prepared excessive food portions for midday meals.
The report concluded that this might have been caused by the absence of soldiers, who were participating in other activities at the time.
Contractors employed by the Ministry of Defence also seemed to have a tendency to confuse their shopping lists.
In two separate incidents, the Terendak camp received much cheaper jenahak fish (RM4/kg) even though specific orders had been placed for kurau (RM8/kg), bawal hitam (RM8.20/kg) and ikan merah (RM8/kg) fish. This resulted in an excess of payment by RM4337.84.
The Batu Caves Central Supply Depot (food kept for camps in the KL area) was another case of bewildered food supplying, where an order for 629.9kg of imported limes turned into a supply of watermelons.
'Sardine-less' sandwiches for pupils
The report also unearthed a sandwich scam in schools under under the government's Additional Food Programme (RMT).
Founded more than 30 years ago, RMT was designed to give additional portions to schoolchildren from low-income families.
According to the report, SK Jeroco in Lahad Datu, Sabah, was supposed to serve its pupils with sardine sandwiches, prepared with slices of cucumber, tomato and lettuce.
However, what the pupils got were two slices of white bread with margarine.
Students at SK Jernang in Batang Padang, Perak were also fed by miserly chefs, who promptly gave them fried mee hoon bereft of vegetables, and a sixth of an apple, instead of half as promised.
The report also found that suppliers to five primary schools were supplying low quality food items under the RMT programme.
Six other outsourced school food suppliers were also found to be providing items, usually of inferior quality, different from the RMT recommendation.
The report also revealed several irregularities such as in SJK(C) Choong Hua 2 in Bidor, Perak, where packets of instant noodles, instead of fried beehoon, were provided to pupils.
The excuse often cited was the difficulty in obtaining raw materials, with some schools said to be too far from suppliers. For many students in the mornings, breakfast was not ready to be served.
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