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Post-term courtesy visit to Dr. Yusuf, Pengarah of Jabatan Kesihatan Sabah, was accomplished successfully at the 3rd floor of Wisma Persekutuan in Sembulan, Kota Kinabalu, this morning.
Dr. Yusuf was briefed on the latest development of the Ahli Lembaga Pelawat Hospital (ALPH) of Queen Elizabeth hospital, notably on the problems associated with the appointments, hospital management & ALPH relationship, and the performance of the committee members. The hospital management is especially mentioned to be more proactively to engage with the ALPH in order to bring more benefits to the community.
The Director agreed that more NGOs and female are appointed to extend the influence of the ALPH to reflect the main objective of the organization as 'the bridge between the community and the hospital'. The Director also urged to look into stepping up the interaction between the hospital management and the ALPH. Dr. Yusuf also wished that new teams of ALPH for all the districts in Sabah can be appointed sooner in order to move forward with all the planned activities.
There have been complaints on the reception of phone calls at the QEH, and the ALPH of QEH proposed that the state JKN to set up a special centralized complaint unit for the state to handle all the medical complaint calls with a toll-free line where the individual callers will be handled by professionally trained personnel.
The acute car parking woes at both the QEH and QEH II (formerly SMC) were raised and JKN has been urged to look into it seriously as public are finding it too stressful when visiting.
The reconstruction of QEH complex was discussed and agreed that it should be sped up for strategic consideration in terms of meeting up the expectation of the public as well as to pave the way for attracting and retaining talents to the hospital. The reconstruction also regarded as a basic foundation and turning point for regaining the public confidence in QEH.
The meeting lasted 1 hour, and ALPH appreciated the time taken for the short exchange of views on the hospital affairs, and looking forward to see more ALPH in the state to work cordially and efficiently with the hospital management in the year forward.
Date: Saturday, February 13, 2010
We refer to the news report 'RM10M upgrade for the QEH2-Lintas road' as published in Daily Express on 13-Feb-2010
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The announcement of the above is laudable but regrettably that it will only be a reality by 2012, if all goes well as estimated, planned, and executed.
It's a good reflection of government's sensitivity toward the public interest in the Damai area where the main aim of the access road was meant to ease up the traffic in the Jalan Damai/Jalan Kolam, but unfortunately without the consideration of the ambulance needs of the hospital - the newly acquired government hospital, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital II (QEH II which is formerly Sabah Medical Centre).
The speedy access of the ambulance to and from the hospital to the various vicinities of the city is mandatory; and it's timeliness will have much significant effect on the aspect of life saving efforts as every seconds and minutes are important to the survival of the patients in transit.
The announcement by the Director of JKR, En. John Anthony, is a relief but fall short of our expectation as the project will only take off in 2011. Time is important in life-saving, and in view of that, we wish that the authority consider to use the emergency fund to build the dual-carriageway road soonest possible.
The public or users of QEH I & II have been suffering enough of the ordeal of inferior infrastructure, and the 'special-arrangement' of human resources and facilities 'juggling' due to the sudden discovery of bad structure of the main tower block in November, 2008.
In order to save more lives, the federal government, through the efforts of the relevant personnels in the Ministry of Health, and subsequently, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, had then decided to purchase the present QEH II building and its facility at a cost of RM380M, and had also allocated another RM90M for the necessary additional renovation and equipments; all of these under 'emergency' funding!
The JKR, or the relevant authority, in making the funding, or approval, must therefore do likewise based on 1Malaysia motto: 'People First, Performance Now'.
Thank you.
Chu Kong Ming
Chairman
Hospital Visitor Board (Queen Elizabeth Hospital)
e-mail: ckmalph@gmail.com
