KUCHING, May 2 — PKR MP Dr Michael Teo today called on the federal and Sarawak governments to take urgent measures to correct the injustice and widespread negligence within the state’s healthcare system.
He said the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed severe inadequacies within the state’s healthcare system and this should provide the opportunity for decisive action to ensure universal healthcare for all, with a specific focus on the rural population in Sarawak.
“The government must invest in healthcare as it is a pre-requisite to sustainable development and prosperity for all,” Dr Teo said.
He added the healthcare per capita spending in Sarawak must be increased, reflecting the unique challenges that local Sarawakians face in terms of healthcare access and delivery because of local infrastructure issues, such as the distance and expense required to access specialist healthcare services.
“All ‘Projek Hospital Sakit’ must be resolved urgently and more local Sarawakians must be trained as frontline healthcare workers to ensure local capacity is strengthened and local talent retained to serve local communities.
“Emergency and critical care services must be given top priority in the Covid-19 era and beyond,” Dr Teo said.
He said timely screening, contact tracing and appropriate isolation strategies must be available throughout Sarawak in the fight against the spread of the virus.
“When patients fall sick, they must have access to timely critical care facilities, ventilators and specialist care,” he said.
Dr Teo also claimed many local healthcare clinics are poorly equipped to handle medical emergencies and infectious disease outbreaks, with some even lacking basic equipment and simple paracetamol.
“It is a national scandal and tragedy of epic proportions that Sarawak is the state with the largest number of ‘Projek Sakit dan Tergendala’ hospitals in Malaysia,” he said, citing Lawas, Petra Jaya and Sri Aman hospitals as examples.
Dr Teo, however, welcomed an announcement by the Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah that the Ministry of Health (MoH) now has 18 hospitals for Covid-19 screening in Sarawak compared to five hospitals in the first phase of the movement control order (MCO) period.
He also applauded the move that the Sarawak General Hospital, Miri Hospital, Bintulu Hospital, and Sibu Hospital have been identified as Covid-19 treatment centres in the state, with a bed capacity of 736 beds and 63 critical care beds and 112 ventilators.
