The Star Malaysia

Equip district hospitals with CT scanners

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DURING the Hari Raya Aidil Fitri week, my grandfathe­r who is 82 years old suffered a stroke for the second time. We rushed him to the emergency department of Slim River Hospital where he was brought into the red zone and first-line management was performed immediatel­y. After about 30 minutes, we were told that he would be taken to Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun for a computed tomography (CT) scan.

He was taken there by ambulance and we followed in our own car. After the CT scan was completed, we waited for the neurologis­t’s review and then went back to Slim River Hospital. Overall, the whole process took about five hours.

The incident made me wonder what was actually happening in Slim River Hospital, a semi-specialist district hospital in Muallim, Perak. I looked up its official website and read that it caters to a huge area, that is from Tapah in the northern region to Kuala Kubu Baru in the south, which comprises a staggering 150,000 people.

From a casual conversati­on with one of the hospital staff, I found out that between 10 and 12 patients who suffered a stroke or were injured in road accidents during the Raya period were sent to Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun for CT scans.

I am sure the Health Ministry is aware that in Perak, after Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun, Slim River Hospital is the next largest public medical facility. It has a new building and is supposed to have stateof-the-art facilities to cater to the people in this region. But, as I found out, it doesn’t.

Not everyone can afford to drive to Ipoh and, most importantl­y, without an immediate CT report, anything can happen to the patient if he/she has severe intracrani­al bleeding.

We, the people of Slim River, therefore urge the Health Ministry and state Health Department to install a CT scan in Slim River Hospital as soon as possible. I personally believe that instead of the new national car project, the government should provide district hospitals with CT scanning machines which can speed up the diagnosis and treatment of patients.

KHESHEN Slim River, Perak

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