Heart patients who wait and wait
NST: 08 Aug 2006L.P.C. Penang
MY uncle is a heart patient. He had been advised by cardiologists to have a bypass surgery as soon as possible as his arteries were severely blocked.
He was referred to the cardiothoracic clinic of Penang Hospital for treatment. He was told he would have to wait weeks for his surgery. Weeks have turned into months and there have been no calls.
My uncle and other patients in the same predicament enquired from several quarters, many of whom were working in Penang Hospital, and complained about the long wait.
The shocking news: A number of heart surgeons have left Penang Hospital in recent months because they were unhappy with the state of affairs there.
The remaining senior heart surgeon, who also happens to be the head there, is apparently not available for bypass operations. Thus, there is a severe backlog of cases.
How could the authorities let this happen? Why did the other surgeons leave?
How can the hospital put patients’ lives at stake?
The authorities must act now. How long more are heart patients to wait?
My uncle and other patients in the same predicament enquired from several quarters, many of whom were working in Penang Hospital, and complained about the long wait.
The shocking news: A number of heart surgeons have left Penang Hospital in recent months because they were unhappy with the state of affairs there.
The remaining senior heart surgeon, who also happens to be the head there, is apparently not available for bypass operations. Thus, there is a severe backlog of cases.
How could the authorities let this happen? Why did the other surgeons leave?
How can the hospital put patients’ lives at stake?
The authorities must act now. How long more are heart patients to wait?
6 comments:
better mention you are quoting from NST. Without that quoting, I'd think you are the one who wrote this letter:)
Government should be blammed for the "role" of forcing the doctors to resign from MOH. They are the one that treat us like slave and we never get promoted for years just because of their own difficult rules.
Dr. Chua, pls do something about it!!!!
I REFER to the letter "Heart patients who wait and wait" (NST, Aug 8).
The Penang Hospital has maintained the waiting time of two months for non-urgent heart cases.
This compares well with other government heart centres in the country.
For urgent heart and thoracic cases, there is no delay as operations are immediate, performed even on weekends and public holidays.
There is no reduction in the total number of open heart surgeries over the past few years.
The number of consultant cardiac surgeons has remained the same over the past five years.
The allegation that many heart surgeons have left Penang Hospital is incorrect. These doctors are posted to Penang Hospital as trainees in cardiac surgery and they are then rotated to other heart centres as part of their training requirement.
The State Health Department monitors services at all critical clinical departments at Penang Hospital in relation to waiting time and manpower requirements to ensure efficient services are provided to the public at all times.
By Dr. ONG CHEE LENG, Director of Health Penang
congrates, your adapted letter even caught Dr ong attention.
Dr. Ong CL's reply is just too plain and superficial. She did not portray the real situation in HPG. Ask anyone working there, they will tell you a different scenario. For the last three years, how many cardiac surgeons have left for private practices? How many is left now? Dr. Ong, please present facts and not some general statement to back up the allegation.
Anonymous 1, thanks for your reminder. I should have put the "quote". No, I am not the writer.
Anonymous 2, thanks for the comment.
Anonymous 3, thanks for dropping by, I supposed this is also a quote from NST (Letter, 10/08/2006).
Fang, Dr. Ong CL won't visit this silly blog.
Dr. Uknowhow, so what is the real situation behind? I was rather unaware of what was happening outside my own unit. Guess, I am just like "katak di bawah tempurung".
Post a Comment