More allocation needed to upgrade health facilities — Stephen

KOTA KINABALU: Minister of Health and People’s Wellbeing Datuk Stephen Wong Tien Fatt hopes that the federal health ministry would increase its allocation to upgrade healthcare facilities in Sabah.

He said Sabah was lagging far behind in healthcare compared to Peninsular Malaysia.

For instance, Wong said a doctor in Sabah served more than 1,200 patients while a doctor in the peninsula only looked after 600 patients.

Meanwhile, he said the ratio for dentist was one to 12,000 patients in Sabah, while that in West Malaysia was one dentist to 4,000 to 6,000 patients.

He said this to the media during a courtesy call by the Secretary General of the Health Ministry Datuk Seri Dr Chen Chaw Min on the Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Shafie Apdal here, yesterday.

Wong thanked Dr Chen for understanding the situation in Sabah and hoped that the health ministry could increase allocation for the state in order to upgrade the healthcare facilities here.

On the other hand, he said dengue fever in Sabah had become serious in the past two months.

He said the ministry was carrying out gotong-royong to eradicate Aedes mosquitoes.

“A nationwide gotong-royong will be held on March 9, which will be held at Telipok, for Sabah.”