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OKU Pays A Government Hospital RM100 to Confirm That He’s A Handicap. He Wants to Know Why That Happen to him in a Country That Keeps Touting On the Spirit of “Keluarga Malaysia” but Ignores the Sick and the Poor.
By Mihar Dias
(C) Copyright July 2022
This is a true story and I am writing this column with the greatest empathy over the predicament of a poor and sickly member of our “Keluarga Malaysia”.
This gentleman, Kamaruddin who lives in Alor Setar is bedridden and has been going in and out of the hospital for the last two years because he is suffering from a variety of ailments which confine him to his bed and a wheelchair. He is unable to walk or use his hands with ease.
Some kind friends suggested that he ought to ask for funding from government agencies.
Pekeso wanted a medical report for them to consider his case and he did pay a government hospital RM40 for a medical check-up.
After they saw his report he was given a pittance, hardly enough to cover the cost of his wheelchair and special boots that assists him when he struggles to walk.
Another neighbour suggested that he applied to Zakat for assistance. He was told that as a Muslim he might be considered by the charity organisation that does assist Muslims in dire straits.
However, they wanted a card from the Welfare Department to confirm that he is indeed a disabled person or a handicapped, in Bahasa “Orang Kurang Upaya” (OKU).
He then obtained a form from the Welfare Department for that purpose which has to be endorsed by a doctor at a government hospital that he frequents almost weekly during the last couple of years.
At the doctor’s office, the nurse told him “Pak Chik to get a doctor to chop this document you must first pay RM100 and bring the receipt back to us before he can endorse the form”.
His wife had to push him in his wheelchair to the payment counter where he paid the amount as required. Later, he returned to the doctor’s office where it was duly signed after the nurse sighted the receipt.
He asked me and I would like the Ministry of Health to clarify to us why this poor sickly man needs to pay RM100 just to get a form signed without any medical examination. In fact, the doctor signed the form without even seeing him.
In addition, he had to use what little savings he has just to pay the hospital in advance before he was able to get the financial support that he was not even sure of getting.
He told me he was not asking for his money back but he wanted to know why he has to pay RM100 just to confirm he is handicapped.
He asked “Is it because the Ministry of Health wants to discourage frauds from posing as handicapped? Or what….?”
But to charge a person RM100 to get a chop from a doctor he has been seeing for the last two years is indeed daylight robbery because he said his wife has to work extra hard to bake about 20 pieces of bread or more to make that amount just to get a form stamped by a government hospital.
I told him I could highlight his case but I have no answers.
Perhaps the Minister of Health could be persuaded to explain to us why they need to charge a poor member of “Keluarga Malaysia” who is indeed suffering from a variety of ailments, RM100 in order to stamp a form to confirm that he is indeed a handicap or an OKU.
We are left wondering how many others like him are turned away daily at government hospitals because they are unable to afford RM100 to get a form signed and stamped by a doctor and consequently missed the chance of a lifetime of being assisted by an organisation that truly helps the handicap.
Mihar Dias is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
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