Materia Medica Malaysiana

Kelantan A Problematic State To Health Ministry - Dr Chua

Kelantan gives the Health Ministry the most problems as a result of the state government's failure in providing satisfactory health services to its people.
Health Minister, Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said his ministry had to provide special allocations of almost RM100,000 yearly to implement specific programmes like clean water availability and food supplementation, including provision of vitamins for undernourished children in the state.
"The unsatisfactory state of health of the people in Kelantan, with its many infectious diseases because of poor water quality and unhygienic food, is a big challenge to the ministry.
"All this is known to the state government, but they have still failed to provide clean water supply or raise the socio-economic standard of the people, especially the rural poor," he told reporters after visiting the construction site of a new health clinic for Gua Musang here Sunday.
He said the ministry had to shoulder the risk of potential disease outbreak although it was mainly due to the weakness of the state government.
Besides this, he said the PAS government, under the leadership of Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, had also failed in terms of enforcement, resulting in infectious diseases like cholera, typhoid, malaria and dysentery continuing to be a problem in Kelantan unlike other states which hardly faced such cases.
He said about 30 per cent of Kelantanese children below the age of five were malnourished compared to the 20 per cent average at the national level.
"We hope the state government supports our efforts to help the poor as other states don't have such programmes. It is also proof Kelantan has never been mistreated by the federal government," he said.
On other developments, Chua said the federal government had approved an allocation of RM70 million for expansion of the Gua Musang Hospital.
"It is for the building of three wards, including a maternity ward, operating theatre, laboratory, blood bank, nurses hostel, a pharmacy, X-Ray facilities and upgrading of existing equipment," he said.