ARE THERE BLACK & CORRUPT HANDS OPERATING AT OUR HOSPITAL TENDER AWARDS?

 

FROM THE MALAY MAIL:

Glitch can risk patients’ lives
by AYU MUSA KAMAL and KALBANA PERIMBANAYAGAM

The glitch took place between 9.45am and 12.15pm, said Selangor Health director Datin Dr Ang Kim Teng.

She, however, said it was not due to a test on a new system as claimed by some people.

She also did not deny the maintenance service provider could cause the glitch as the company was only appointed last month.

“Everyone was trying to facilitate the problem and yesterday (Monday), everything was back to normal,” Dr Ang told The Malay Mail yesterday.

On behalf of the hospital, she apologised to visitors for the in convenience caused and to patients who were affected during the glitch.

“We hope everything will run smoothly from now on as the power has been restored,” she said.

She added that the hospital has rescheduled new appointments for patients who were affected on that day.

Dr Ang said the appointment of a new contractor was necessary as the previous contractor’s contract had ended.

The Malay Mail spoke to the Consumers Association of Subang and Shah Alam president Datuk Dr Jacob George, who said that the association received numerous complaints from patients and doc tors about the technical glitch on Monday.

“Things were extremely efficient with the previous contractor but when their contract ended, the hospital decided to appoint a new contractor,” said Dr Jacob.

He said it was puzzling as to why the hospital decided not to renew the contract of the previous contractor after the proven good track record.

“Selayang Hospital is a paper less hospital and we have been monitoring its system. What happened on Monday was chaotic and many were dissatisfied with it.”

He said the association would like to suggest that the hospital set up a committee comprising the stakeholders to decide on the continuation of contracts.

“The committee should be transparent and decisions should not be done without consultation from all parties as this can result to problems.”

He said a situation like Monday should not have occurred where public interest was involved.

“Time is of the essence in hospitals. When data cannot be re trieved because of a technical glitch, it is dangerous to the lives of the ailing patients.

“I am appealing to the Ministry of Health to investigate the Monday incident to find out what really caused the power failure.

“Stern action should be taken to those responsible.”

HINDRAF HAS WON OVER THE INDIANS!

 Abdullah & Najib must meet Hindraf and hear them out!

So as widely predicted, lawyer P Uthayakumar had been arrested under the Sedition Act and expected to be formally charged at Shah Alam Court! 

His arrest which is of no surprise comes several days after police raided both his and his brother’s law offices in Kuala Lumpur and Negeri Sembilan with a warrant in search for a publication deemed to be seditious in content which according to reports were never found. 

Apart from the arrest of Uthayakumar, Malaysian authorities have made legal history by issuing others in the same organization with restraining orders under Section 98 of the Criminal Procedure Code. 

The arrest and the Malaysian government’s response to dissent now has taken centre stage in the international media and fora and certainly has embarrassed a leadership which preaches one thing abroad while practicing another domestically. 

So far ‘public opinion and sympathy’ seems to be with Hindraf as they stand on moral high ground with the arrest  widely believed to be an attempt to prevent a mass rally on Sunday organized by the former to address community woes, despite the non issuance of a police permit! 

Officially, the objective of the rally seems to be to gather 10,000 Indians to hand a memorandum addressed to the Queen of England to support a class-action suit against Her Majesty’s government for bringing Indians to Malaysia as indentured laborers and exploiting them for 150 years. 

A total of US$4 trillion (RM14 trillion) is being sought for US$2 million for every Indian residing in Malaysia. 

But it does not take one to be a rocket scientist to know that the net result of that class action would embarrass the Malaysian government who has been rather vocal and taken the moral high ground in issues of human rights, justice governance and fair play in the international arena ‘as it suits them’ while doing the exact opposite in domestic issues. 

More so, with the rising allegations of discriminations against Malaysian Indians and the failure to address these issues with new tangible approaches and plan of action. 

Instead of positive engagement and diffusion of tensions,  threats, warnings, indulging in acts of defamation and using the law and its force to curtail dissent seems to be the official response to an alleged litany of woes the community faces from poverty, lack of scholarships, losing jobs to foreigners, discrimination and destruction of houses of worship, to cite a few! 

For the record, Hindraf is certainly not a political party nor a full fledged organization, having a war chest in finances but the truth that cannot be denied is that they have been able to capture the hearts and minds of the both the professional, middle class and the marginalized Indians by addressing the issues the way they have to date! 

They have risked all, while others give ‘lip service’ and speeches claiming to address the same community woes but have only addressed issues superficially, while enriching themselves with numerous honorifics and wealth while the community has fallen deeper into despair! 

But the reality is that despite the crackdown, warnings, threats, even a ‘staged press conference’ of political ‘pretenders and hypocrites’ reports emerge that more than 30,000 gathered to show their support for Hindraf and from what I learnt for several who were on the streets, there were hundreds of others sympathizers watching and waiting in anxiety and displeasure at home! 

These were comments coming from people who have braved all, including, grievous bodily harm to make a political statement against those who are alleged to have ‘systematically marginalized them over the years! 

These are not the ‘political pretenders’ from certain political parties showing up in bus loads to ‘sore up numbers’ after receiving various financial and other gratifications and promises! 

One thing is certain – now – with the arrest of Hindraf leaders, the overbearing force used to disperse a peaceful rally to lawfully submit a memorandum to the ‘powers that be’ at the British Embassy a large reservoir of ‘fence sitters and supporters’ in the Indian community have been alienated and are angry. 

It would not be wrong to now say that certain component parties of the Barisan Nasional will pay a heavy political price in the forthcoming elections! 

And no ‘feel good stories’, public relations pieces on Sundays, nor the ‘mischievously distorted’ articles of spin masters from the mainstream print and electronic media with many a horrific will be able to prevent that! 

Now among Malaysian Indians and in the eyes of the international observers, we have a new player addressing Malaysian Indian community’s woes called Hindraf. 

And based on the numbers that showed up both in Kuala Lumpur and Batu Caves - they will grow from strength to strength! 

As a consumer advocate of more than three decades my appeal and birthday wish (Nov 27) is that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s and his deputy Najib Tun Razak (see pix above) should engage this ‘new reality’ Hindraf in positive dialogue rather than continue to listen to the outdated and misleading perceptions of ‘third parties’ and others in political office serving their own political interest and greed rather than that of a marginalized and hurting community! 

INDISCRIMINATE PRICE INCREASES - PARTIES RIGHTLY WARNED!

‘run away prices hurting consumers!’ 

I am pleased that the government has warned roti canai sellers and suppliers of burger buns not to increase the prices of their products indiscriminately at the expense of consumers.

And the reasons for that are clear as rightly pointed out by our Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister, Datuk Shafie Apdal that - the price of general purpose flour still remained at RM1.35 per kilogramme and there was ample supply.

So why the rise?

He further stated that action could be taken under the Price Control Act 1946 against those who raise the price of flour, which is a price-controlled item.

We all know IF CONVICTED - in Malaysia its a big IF -  one could be fined RM15,000 or jailed two years, or both, for individuals and fined RM25,000 for companies!

In all our observations we are sure that the flour price normally stays at RM1.35.

So the Minister’s appeal to producers to ensure that there is ample supply is fair.

It is true that the Ministry does not control the price of ‘enriched wheat flour’ but I trust and hope, the producers will not certainly increase production of this type of flour at the expense of general purpose flour!

But the truth is - there has been an increase in the price of enriched wheat flour following the rise in the price of wheat imported from the United States and Canada which had reached US$450 per tonne compared with US$235 per tonne previously.

But the truth is - all stakeholders must be fair and reasonable to the cash hit and anxiety filled Malaysian consumer!

MALAYSIA MOVES TO REDUCE DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN WORKERS!

 ’confident the matter can be addressed positively!   

MALAYSIA MOVES TO REDUCE DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN WORKERS!

Interesting to note, the annoucement that the government has embarked on three immediate strategies to reduce the number of foreign workers in the country’s construction sector, who make up 41 per cent or 266,742 in the sector until June. Malaysia’s senior and proactive Works Minister, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu stated the first strategy was to make compulsory the use of the Industrialised Building System (IBS), a technique involving the use of pre-fabricated components, in government construction projects.

We are made to understand that this was to meet the target set in the IBS Roadmap for 50 per cent usage this year and 70 per cent in 2008. XPRS understands the 2nd strategy is to encourage contractors to employ foreign workers through the Construction Labour Exchange Centre Berhad (CLAB) where employment of foreign workers would be based on project size and duration.This is a brillant move curtailing the abuse of the present system!

Finally, the 3rd strategy was for contractors to employ only skilled workers as being done in many countries like Singapore which has a professional manual which is well respected with zero tolerance for abuse or misuse!

Samy Vellu further stated that the IBS Roadmap also targeted to gradually reduce the number of foreign construction workers, from 75 per cent in 2003 to 55 per cent in 2005 and 15 per cent by 2010.

We understand that through these 3 strategies, the Malaysian government in this sector hope to control the influx of foreign workers and to coordinate their entry according to the needs of the construction sector.

Well done, Datuk Seri Minister!

EARLY WARNING SIGNS ON DIABETES NEEDS CONSUMER ATTENTION SAYS JG!

In my call - not only parents should educate their children on maintaining a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle to prevent diabetes in children, I believe they should themselves lead by example - a ‘trauma’ in Malaysia as we all ‘cakap tetapi tak bikin!’

So when a paediatric consultant stated the same on health I cannot but support the theme!

It was really Prof Dr Fatimah Harun from University Malaya Medical Centre who stated that there was a growing trend globally, including in Malaysia where diabetes is being detected in children at the early age of 9.

She said although the actual cause of diabetes was uncertain although both genetics and environment could be the contributory factors but obesity was the main cause among children.

Like she stated I am also advised that the majority of the children are suffering from Type 2 diabetes which was once seen as a disease of adults and the resaons are aplenty!

Any way in her speech, Prof Fatimah stated that Type 2 diabetes was a non-insulin-dependent diabetes caused by the body’s inability to produce enough insulin and can be controlled through good diet and regular exercise.

She said 1.2 million people in Malaysia were diabetics, with 98 per cent suffering from Type 2 diabetes, and children are not spared from this global epidemic with life-threatening complications.

What was more frightening is the fact as she stated that if one has diabetes, one is simply also at risk of heart attack and stroke, and this is due to unhealthy lifestyle of children.

And why?

Simple - they are consuming unbalanced food with more carbohydrate rather than protein and lack of sleep!

I simply ask in fact appeal to parents - please do the right - take this advise rather seriously as yours and your beloved childrens’ health is in your hands!

SURGEONS AT SELAYANG HOSPITAL A CARING AND DEDICATED LOT!

SURGEONS AT SELAYANG HOSPITAL A CARING AND DEDICATED LOT!  

A 37 year old woman feels that a ‘kidney transplant’ in China costing over RM150, 000.00 is the answer to her medical predicament! 

She is not the first to highlight her plight ‘in the manner she has’ to seek public donations through politicians and political welfare centers with assistance from mainstream media! 

In the past, we have had similar appeals for lung, liver, heart, kidney and other organs and invariably the venue is always either China or India as both have an extensive profit driven organ transplantation industry but the pertinent question remains. 

Are they pursuing the treatment after consultation with Malaysia’s best as history and facts will show that many who went abroad to both China and India against local experts advice developed post surgical complications which our medical experts had to treat and manage before the inevitable – death! 

Perhaps, what is lacking is the need for those affected to first seek local opinion and advice rather than to succumb to the numerous ‘offers and claims’ through brochures from countries practicing organ transplants as their version of medical tourism! 

If we speak out against this form of ‘medical adventurism’, we get labeled as uncaring, cold and indifferent and perhaps, I will too, to people who do not know me personally! 

But the truth remains that we must trust and have confidence in our team of medical practitioners, more so, if they have a track record of sincere service, despite the sometimes harsh conditions and political environment that they work in!

And more so when they are accused unkindly and undeservedly!!

And therefore as someone who has had a personal track record of addressing similar issues and grouses of public hospital in Malaysia since 1977, I am certainly disturbed at one Francis Siah’s complaint in his article ‘ Good, bad and ugly of Selayang Hospital’.

It is sad that ‘standing orders’ do not allow those the comments were directed at to reply as natural justice would allow and therefore we will never know the real reasons both administrative, medical, management why the decisions made were made but the reality now is a picture has now been painted quite erroneously (in my opinion) that whatever medical management decision prior to Francis Siah’s intervention in that case was questionable or worst “flawed!” 

As a consumer advocate of over three decades, I must say based on our research and experience the surgeons at Selayang Hospital have been serving the community with compassion & dedication given the limitation of resources, thus I find the statements made thereof unkind and undeserved! 

Let us look at the allegations – there was a referral from Kuching General Hospital, the patient arrived but no ambulance at KLIA, the dates for the operation was set but had to be postponed, doctors who were questioned were “too busy’, “proud”, had “airs about themselves” and medical attention was delayed! 

So the matter had to be ‘politicized” – so a call is made to a former Minister, a serving health minister, the director general health services! 

The hospital administration is roped in adding to the ‘unfolding drama’ which is really a medical management decision that only a medical practitioner should make in the first place! 

The next pertinent question – was there such an explanation? 

Since the answer to the above was in the affirmative based on the said article, why was the article still written in the ‘manner and tone’ it was? 

I have never heard of hospital ambulances waiting anywhere more so at KLIA unless there was an emergency referral and ‘time was of the essence’ and in that case perhaps, a helicopter could be better used!  Was this case then an emergency? 

Was this communication documented between both hospitals in Kuching and Selayang? True, the date given for ‘Aunty Lucy’s elective operation’ was October 3 but was it postponed due to grounds that are justifiable? 

During that same period of time were there several other emergency and trauma cases that were referred from elsewhere, which stretched to the core the available human resources, Para medical staff, and the team of surgeons that they simply could not cope?  Given that it was also around a festival period (Hari Raya) when a great number of the Malay nursing staff go on leave and to perform a major surgery around that period may seem dangerous as the few nursing staff may not be able provide optimum care lest the patient develops complications after a major cancer surgery.   

I am certain there must have been a tangible reason! A finding reported in the New England Journal of Medicine stated young doctors make far fewer mistakes when their hours are restricted to let them get enough sleep! 

Here the study of 24 student doctors caring for seriously ill patients in a hospital found that those who were restricted to working no more than 16 hours without a break made about one-third fewer serious errors that could harm patients. 

Since doctors-in-training provide much of the medical care in American hospitals, the findings suggest that current guidelines that allow interns and residents to work long hours without a break are endangering patient safety! 

During the traditional schedule, the interns made 35.9 percent more serious errors, including misdiagnosing patients, ordering the wrong medication or dose, interpreting test results incorrectly, or making a mistake during a procedure, the researchers found. 

There was no significant difference in the number of patients who died, but that may have been largely because a special panel of doctors was monitoring the interns and caught many of the errors. 

Patient-safety advocates hailed the research as a milestone in the long debate over student doctors’ hours. 

It is estimated between 44,000 and 98,000 hospitalized Americans die each year from medical errors. 

And analysts have said over and over that a lack of sleep does inhibit doctor performance.  

If the surgeons and their team at Selayang Hospital had been in such a situation it would be certainly acceptable but we will not know because they are not the ones ‘doing the talking’ are they? A pilot is told he has to ‘stand down’ after completing an 8 hours flight, a nuclear physicist or others exposed to radiation levels when the sensors on their attire give the appropriate readings, even bus drivers are today told they have to make regular rest stops in the interest of safety and then why is it incomprehensible to provide the same latitude to medical officers, physicians, surgeons and respective medical teams dealing with human lives! 

So if a postponement is initiated why must one assume this is done in bad faith? I certainly find it totally irresponsible when one concludes that a doctor is ‘proud’, ‘inconsiderate’ or worst still having an ‘airs about themselves” if they fail to answer third party queries as a logical explanation and those familiar with the surgical units and their workings know only that the surgeon in charge will be able to provide answers to decisions taken and not medical officers or worst still Para medical staff or administrators unless they have been briefed! 

In my humble opinion, it may have been more appropriate to have discussed the issue with the senior surgeon / head surgeon than having had the whole episode politicized. The management of patients rests on a fine balance of trust and a good doctor-patient relationship. Perhaps, the decision was taken to perform other more urgent cases and also the impending festive season may have resulted in many Muslim staff going on leave leaving only a skeleton number which would be inadequate to provide the expected level of post-operative care.  

After all this is not an alien suggestions as nurses who didn’t wash their hands and left patients lying in soiled beds (during acute shortage of manpower) were cited in an official report blaming mismanagement for the deaths of 90 people who contracted a bacterial infection in hospitals in southern England. 

In recent years, Britain’s super bug infection rates of bacteria like Clostridium difficile and MRSA have skyrocketed. 

In the 1990s, only 5 percent of in-hospital blood infections were from MRSA, the deadly bacteria resistant I to nearly every available antibiotic. 

In past years, we are advised that figure has jumped to more than 40 percent. 

Critics blame the rise on overstretched hospitals that do not have enough money or capacity to catch super bug infections early. 

To put it simply- at the end of the day, one must allow the medical practitioners to practice as they find fit in the best interest of the patient. I’m sure no clinician will make decisions that are detrimental to their patient’s safety & well being. Using political arm twisting, influence, spins, and pressure while getting the net desire achieved not only puts patients at risks but also disorientates and disillusions proactive medical practitioners in public hospitals who have put aside lucrative financial offers in the private sector to continue to serve under thankless, duress and harsh conditions. 

So what do we have here? 

A manipulative columnist who wants to strike back using “the power of the pen” for personal gain? 

Obviously, using his “connections” to get VIPs involved to push his way in? 

The beauty and naked truth is despite ‘his connections’, his aunty will die and he will die (sooner or later- like the rest of us) as death is inevitable!

But, is there an irony of sorts or hypocrisy here? 

If Francis Siah truly believes that everyone is equal and deserves justice, then what about the emergency cases that needed surgery but because of all the fuss he has made, may have had their surgery delayed / deferred to their detriment? 

Why does he not use his ‘country bumpkin skills’ (to quote him) to write about how these other patients suffered because he managed to manipulate the system to his advantage by using ‘his connections.’ 

Despite his numerous claims or those that he makes out to be that as if his aunty has been purposefully singled out for punishment by this ‘evil Dr. B’ this matter was poorly handled with injustice done to the doctors at Selayang hospital! 

The naked truth is - if these ‘doctor bashing’, allegations and ingratitude continue what is there to keep dedicated and skillful medical practitioners in the public hospitals when more lucrative pastures without ‘the political bias and bashing’ are all inviting in the private sector? I sincerely hope that this unfortunate episode will not result in the dedicated and caring team of surgeons in Selayang hospital finally quitting bringing the transplant programmes there and in the country which is a record in itself to a halt! 

If they stay – the only reason is their continued sincere dedication and commitment, and the confidence they have in proactive health minister, Dr Chua Soi Lek and the ‘efficient hands on’ Director General of Health Services, Dr Ismail Merican. As Dr Chua Soi Lek stated quite recently, it is unfair to claim or even suggest that all government hospitals provide low quality services, are flawed, or incompetent, when they treat 80 per cent of the sick in the country! 

And for the record in 2006, a whopping 40 million people were treated!  

In all humility, after addressing the various ‘woes and grouses’ in public hospitals since 1977 – I cannot but fully agree with the health minister!

(An edited version of this article was carried by Malaysiakini - Nov 1 2007)