M.Krishnamoorthy
A media coach, adjunct professor and author
Since last year, IJN has discharged civil servants and pensioners due to government cost-cutting measures.
A former Attorney General Office Deputy Public Prosecutor Ravindran Selvaraj related the story of his mother a pensioner whose medical file was moved from IJN to University Hospital.
Ravindran said it is sad that the Government is ignoring pensioners who had served the Government painstakingly in their old age.
“My mom is a pensioner. Former government civil servant who held the post of warrant officer 1 with the Defence Ministry for 21 years. She had undergone angiogram and always maintain her medical records with IJN for her heart issues.
“Recently her file was all moved to University Hospital and she claimed that University Hospital did not have the appropriate medication to administer her. Plus, it’s not easy to walk in on heart issues just to emergency because they only have cardiologist on call and it has troubled her.
“The news from government to stop pensioners getting medication supply and treatment had been going on for a while and its execution was since last year,” Ravindran the sad state of affairs of pensioners not cared for in their old age.
Ravindran, a lawyer currently serving with the US Embassy, posed some questions that other pensioners are asking.
- Is the government not treating government pensioners so that they could ‘die’ faster?
- What is the government’s stand on having facility like IJN which specialises on heart but unable to treat patients there but accept paying patients which profits IJN?
- Is taxpayers' money insufficient to be used for pensioners acquiring medication at IJN?
- How does the government choose to treat the older retired citizens with medical fairly and the Health Ministry is silent on this matter.
- Do you expect a 60-70-year-old person to acquire insurance?
- Or use their pension fund to treat medical issues?
Recently, Codeblue, a medical news portal, reported how another pensioner was treated.
In a letter to Codeblue, the pensioner states: “At a recent visit to our National Heart Centre (Institut Jantung Negara, IJN), I was shocked to be informed that I was being discharged. This happened despite 25 years of receiving extensive care at IJN with many admissions and multiple procedures. I was told I was being discharged because of a Ministry of Health (MOH) directive that all civil servants and pensioners should be discharged to the MOH cardiac centre nearest their home.
“I protested that my problem was complicated; the IJN senior cardiologist agreed. But I was told their hands were tied as the government cut costs. I discovered that my predicament has been shared by numerous other pensioners and civil servants, all over the country, these past months. So, with a, literally, sinking heart, I returned home and arranged to see the doctors at the MOH cardiac centre near my home. This was difficult as I had to make an appointment, and the clinic was busy,” said the pensioner who wanted anonymity.
Freelance Writer M. Krishnamoorthy (www.imkrishna.net) is a media coach, adjunct professor and undercover journalist. He has freelanced with Bernama, NST, The Star, and Malaysiakini. He also freelances as a fixer/coordinator for CNN, BBC, German and Australian Television networks and the New York Times. As an undercover journalist, he has highlighted society's concerns.
M. Krishnamoorthy is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
