Tens of millions of outpatients in government clinics a year
DAP National Deputy Chairman and MP for Kepong Dr Tan Seng Giaw urges the Health Minister Datuk Chua Soi Lek to use the allocation of RM4.2 billion for medical treatment in 2006 effectively, ensuring the safety of all patients.
Comment by Dr Tan on the efficient use of health funds in Malaysia.
Yesterday, a friend Kumaraguru pointed out to me that the figure of 280,000 outpatients a year for the whole country is very wrong. In fact, in 2003, there were 48 million outpatients and 1.7 million inpatients in government hocpitals and clinics. He is correct.
I did mention millions of patients during the debate on the allocation of RM8.7 billion for the Ministry of Health on 29 November, 2005. 280,000 outpatients is the estimated figure of the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) outpatients for 2006.
In 2006, the estimate for visits to family clinics is 24 million, new emergency patients being 4.2 million. For surgery, the number of outpatients is .5 million and inpatients .27 million; paediatrics .38 million and .31 million;orthopaedic .62 million and .27 million;ENT .28 million and .012 million; skin .046 million and 971; neurology .049 million and 1,000; urology .16 million and 9,600 and so forth.
There are tens of millions of outpatients and millions of inpatients in government hospitals and clinics. The number of staff in the Ministry of Health of '160,000' and the number of patients are two of the factors that require a total revamp 0f the service. We need a Royal Commission to study the strengths and weaknesses of the Ministry.
posted by Tan Seng Giaw @ 12/03/2005 10:40:00 AM
1 Comments:
I know there are thousands of outpatients going to HUKM every day and I can tell you it's 1 Big Hassle:
(a) Registration can take from 45 minutes to 1 hour!
(b) Then you go to the stated Rooms (e.g. Room 3 or 4) to wait for your appointment. This will take anything from 3-5 hours before the Doctor sees you for, say at most, 10-15 minutes! If Health Minister tells you that all should be done in an hour or two, he's day-dreaming, and he should sit out on one of these daily sessions to see just how long it takes to see a Doctor. At least the prescriptions are done online.
(c) Then you go to the Pharmacy and wait for your medication. This, to me, is the most efficient section of the Hospital, and it may take up to 30-40 minutes to get one's prescription.
Who's faults here? The fault, dear Brutus, is in the System: the doctors are over-worked and, too often, there are way too many patients for each Doctor to see - and the electronic announcement system calling for a Patient's Number is broken down for the past year or so since my first visit here, and to date, has never been repaired. Appears to be every section of the HUKM that I go to!!
HUKM, to my mind, is a good hospital, its Doctors dedicated, and they appear to be up to date in their medical prescriptions, but something's got to give in the way the system is run, and if each Patient can be attende to in, say 2 hours flat, well, then, it's like striking 4D! When will this happen?
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