GEORGE TOWN, July 25 — Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng today suggested that the Health Ministry was having problems finding information on allegations of racist doctors here because it never asked the state government for either information or assistance in the investigation.
Following a statement by Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam that his ministry was unable to get information on the matter from the state government, Lim (picture) together with Penang Speaker Law Choo Kiang and state health exco Dr Afif Bahardin today jointly refuted the claim.
“We request that the minister not politicise this issue to come up with baseless accusations against the Penang state government when the ministry did not even approach us at all,” Lim said.
Early this month, opposition Barisan Nasional (BN) assemblyman Datuk Roslan Saidin had raised the allegations in the state assembly, accusing three non-Malay doctors in two government hospitals of poor treatment towards Malay patients.
This created an uproar as Pakatan Rakyat (PR) backbenchers and the state government demanded that Roslan reveal details of the allegations.
Roslan did not reveal the identities of the doctors but said he will submit the necessary reports to the ministry.
He also called a press conference a few days ago together with some of the patients who had alleged poor treatment by these doctors at Kepala Batas Hospital and Seberang Jaya Hospital.
The patients backed Roslan’s allegations and claimed that the doctors had been rude to them when they were seeking treatment at the hospitals.
When commenting on this issue yesterday, Dr Subramanian reportedly said the ministry has launched its own investigations into this whole issue and alleged that the state government was not co-operating with the ministry.
Today, Lim said in a press conference at his office that the state government did not receive any letters or phone calls from the ministry requesting for information on the issue.
Both Law and Dr Afif confirmed that all relevant units and departments did not receive any request from the ministry for more information into the issue.
Lim and Dr Afif demanded that the ministry conduct a full investigation into the allegations against the doctors.
Dr Afif also claimed that Roslan had only submitted his report on this issue to the ministry on July 22 despite revealing it early this month.
