S’wak Health Dept to enforce uniform hospital visitor policy throughout state after social media outcry

KUCHING: The Sarawak Health Department has set up a special audit team to ensure that the implementation of policies in regards to hospital visitors and patient caregivers are uniform throughout the state.

Responding to complaints on social media, state health director Dr Ooi Choo Huck said the department had taken several measures and held briefings for the management staff of public hospitals in the state on May 18 on the matter.

“These actions are to make sure that miscommunication and confusion on the policy of caregivers on rotation will not happen again,” he said in a press statement.

He said the department will ensure that the Health Ministry’s policy and rules for hospital visitors and caregivers that came into force on April 23 for the Covid-19 endemic phase transition, are fully complied with.

“All caregivers and visitors that fulfill the criteria in the policy will be permitted to visit and care for patients,” Dr Ooi said.

Members of the public had taken to social media to complain about the restrictions on visitors at the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) and Sibu Hospital, revealing, among others, that they were not allowed to rotate visits among family members.

On May 15, a Twitter user said that she was not allowed to change shifts at SGH with anyone for at least three nights when caring for her 72-year-old father who was admitted on May 10.

She also claimed that the hospital’s security personnel had harassed her family members, including her mother. Similarly on Twitter, a user claimed that a mother was not allowed to take turns with her husband to care for their three-year-old child in Sibu Hospital.

On the complaints about the SGH here, Dr Ooi said investigations had found that security guards on duty did not properly explain the hospital’s policy and the security company had been reprimanded to ensure that the confusion does not recur.

“The company has been asked to carry out immediate improvements to their service,” he said.

On Sibu Hospital, Dr Ooi said the hospital had launched a probe and they were now trying to locate the complainant to help in their investigation.