PETALING JAYA, Oct 21 — Government hospitals are not facing a shortage of funds to provide medical tests on patients, said Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam.
Responding to Malay Mail on complaints by members of the public that they had been asked to take their tests in private labs, the health minister said such incidents were rare.
“Each hospital has an allocation and as that gets used up, they request for an additional funding. We have made additional allocations including for this hospital,” he said after a visit to Serdang Hospital.
“In that time, they may be unable to offer specialised tests such as cancer marker tests or other types which are not the basic set of tests but we try to minimise this.”
Dr Subramaniam said despite this the public had nothing to fear in terms of basic services as these would always be provided by government institutes.
“It is true that hospitals have to work around these budget constraints. They have to manage medication, tests, and infrastructure with the same budget,” he said.
“However, there will be no compromise on basic services which will always be available at government medical institutions at little or no cost.”
A source in the ministry told Malay Mail that patients frequently misinterpreted changes to practices for financial or material constraints.
“When they are unable to get certain specialised tests, they claim the government is unable to afford it when in fact basic tests and services are available round the clock.”
He said another point of contention was supplying patients with one-month supply of medications instead of up to six months as had been done previously.
“This is not because of a shortage of medication but rather due to hospitals needing to have greater flexibility and to prevent wastage as things can change in that time.
“Also dispensing six months worth of medication does not benefit anyone but the companies contracted to supply the medication, at the cost of tying up the hospital’s resources,” he said.
However, Ramesh Singh, 38, the son-in-law of a patient on the receiving end of these issues, told Malay Mail yesterday the situation was in fact very grave.
“I cannot believe the ministry and indeed the government would take such a nonchalant position on this matter.
“They are splashing out billions of ringgit on trains and infrastructure but who is going to ride the trains and occupy the buildings? Sick Malaysians that’s who,” he said.
Ramesh, whose 75-year-old father in-law recently needed a blood test done prior to a medical procedure, had to deliver the samples by hand to a private laboratory.
“My father-in-law needed a cancer marker test before his CT scan but when they drew the blood they passed it to my wife, who had to deliver the sample and was charged RM136.60 for it,” he said.
“She then had to pick up the results and only then could he get the CT scan done. This is shameful, how are we taking care of our people if things like this cannot be sorted out?”
Ramesh also refuted claims that he could have simply gone to another government hospital for treatment.
“The Selayang Hospital was where he was referred to as they have specialists for nephrology. It is not a matter of having to travel elsewhere for treatment,” he said.
“In the past two years of seeking treatment there, we had no issues. All of a sudden we have to take samples to the lab ourselves. What is going on?”
Ramesh also claimed the hospital was unable to provide necessary medication and this had left him with no choice but to purchase it from pharmacies outside.
“He needed medication in the prep up to his CT scan. This was not available and we had to buy it ourselves.
“How are they going to guarantee a monthly supply if even one off medications are not available?” he asked.
