Dr Sim wants public health care decentralised
KUCHING: Minister of Local Government and Housing Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian is calling for the decentralisation of public health care in order to improve services.
Dr Sim, who is Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) president, said the inaccessibility and poor state of public health care in Sarawak is the reason why it should be decentralised.
He faulted the federal government for the current situation afflicting the sector in Sarawak which is under the purview of his ministry.
Even though health is a federal matter, the federal government has failed Sarawakians in many areas including health care, he lamented.
“That is why the Sarawak government has been negotiating for the federal government to return health autonomy to Sarawak,” he said yesterday when reacting to a comment by cancer activist Sew Boon Lui that only three private hospitals in Kuching have oncologists who deal with cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
Sew, who is the Society for Cancer Awareness and Advocacy Kuching (SCAN) president, was quoted by a human rights news portal that some 80 to 90 per cent of cancer patients in Sarawak seek treatment at the Sarawak General Hospital ( SGH) while 10 to 20 per cent seek treatment at private hospitals, and that this imbalance caused a heavier workload for those at SGH. Sew added that SGH is the only public hospital in the whole state to have an oncology department.
Dr Sim lamented that inaccessibility of health care in the rural areas was also the reason why rural folks in Sarawak did not want to go for follow-up medical visits and treatment.
Separately, Santubong MP Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the federal government failed to emphasise on rural road infrastructure, resulting in Sarawakians still relying on riverine transport, and therefore causing Sarawak to not be able to make medical care regular.
Medical air service was also not made permanent and long term but only periodical like two-week intervals and that again was subjected to weather condition, he said when contacted yesterday.
“That is why the present state government is taking it upon themselves to develop infrastructures in rural Sarawak. With roads, 24-hour electricity and fresh treated water in place, the other facilities especially health care could easily follow,” he said.
Providing adequate health care in rural Sarawak, in particular, continues to be challenging for the state government because of issues involving infrastructure and communication, he pointed out, noting that the population in the state is largely scattered, with about 45 per cent of them living in longhouses, villages and settlements.
The federal government too has no response to why there is no alternative to the 1Malaysia Clinic (now known as Community Clinic) in the rural areas, thereby making the health care situation worse, added Wan Junaidi.
“For example, the Klinik 1Malaysia works well in urban and suburban parts of Peninsular Malaysia but could not be implemented in rural and suburban Sarawak.
“The federal government did not have an alternative to this clinic for rural and suburban Sarawak,” he said.
The former natural resources and environment minister added that until these issues are resolved once and for all, health care in Sarawak will remain in poor condition for a long time.
According to the news portal report, Sew proposed the formation of a Sarawak Cancer Centre like the Peninsular Malaysia equivalent in Putrajaya to solve all these problems, with sufficient imaging tools such as CT scans and MRIs, radiotherapy machines and ablation instruments.
She also urged the Ministry of Health to increase the number of oncologists, oncological nurses and health care personnel for the field in Sarawak, including counsellors and physiotherapists.
She also proposed a radiotherapy machine in Miri.
If none of this is possible, Sew said mini-cancer centres could be set up in a few towns and cities in Sarawak instead, with oncologists put on rotation to frequent each centre regularly.
The recommended ratio of oncologists to the Malaysian population is 10 to one million.
The ideal ratio for Sarawak’s 2.47-million population should be 24 oncologists, but it only had six as of 2017, according to Sew.
Sew said cancer treatment and access in Sarawak is limited, with patients from as far as Miri having no other alternative but to come to SGH for public treatment.