Of hospital and ideals

Last week saw a column in The Star depicting a picture of our Health Minister talking to a patient in Queen Elizabeth Hospital (referred as Queen in this post). I refer to this particular picture because it’s showing what that is really happening in the main referral hospital here in Sabah. The picture showed a cardiac patient on a typical folding bed on the floor commonly used here in Queen whenever the wards are filled beyond their capacities. The patients’ files are then strewn somewhere on the crowded table stands supposedly used for patients to take their meals.

This is a typical scenario in Queen, the main referral hospital in Sabah. Everyday there is pressure to discharge near – stable patients or to refer back to district hospitals in order to make room for more patients and referrals. On any evening it’s no surprise to see the previously empty beds from morning or noon to be filled with new patients, or numerous folding beds to materialize on the floor until walking through the maze of beds and doctors and nurses and medical students becomes an obstacle trekking. The male wards especially, are in fact nick – named by medical students and many doctors as the war zone area. That’s the ward for you.

Accident and emergency (A&E) is no different. The moment you are just to heave a sigh of relief, a torrent of patients crashed into the Green, Yellow and Red zones. Then the frenzy of ECG, x – ray, IV lines and needles begin amidst the small area clogged up with medical personnel, equipments and patients. Mass accident is a nightmare for every doctor here. There is no such thing as 30 minutes wait. Even upon entrance patients would still end up in another waiting area.

Clinics mostly are spilling with patients till past lunch hour. A standard room of 5x5 m contains 2 tables and chairs for 2 doctors, 2 chairs for patients, a rack or shelf and a nurse’s table maybe, and a single examination bed. Extra furniture further cramped up the leftover space available. The lack of doctors paved a path for medical assistant (MA) to specialize and perform various high – level procedures such as echocardiography and Holter study in the cardiology clinic. Mind you, it’s not just technical handling but also medical results analysis and reporting. There are no other states, except maybe Sarawak, where you can see MA specializing in not only cardiology but anaesthesiology, psychiatry, orthopaedics, ophthalmology and various other high specialties especially in district hospitals.

Did I mention that Queen does not have a CT scan machine? Or at least a functioning one.

Thank God they shifted the Pediatrics and the Obs & Gyne wards to Likas hospital.

Note: the post is not meant to be degrading but a shout out to the public of the awful condition and reality here in Sabah.