Materia Medica Malaysiana

Sabah Director admits complaints, vows to improve

Sabah Health Director Datuk Dr Zainul Hamzah acknowledged that hospitals in the State received many complaints from the public over the services rendered.
However, he said services in the hospitals are expected to improve with the on-going service quality courses conducted regularly.
He was responding to media reports including in the Daily Express Sunday Forum that hospital staff, including doctors and nurses, treat patients and close family members of patients rudely.
"We received a lot of complaints (from the public) on this matter and we are conducting quality service courses to enhance the services in the hospitals," he said after the launching of the Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Clinical Education programme at Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH).
The complaints range from the services that patients received from hospital staff, doctors and nurses including on alleged negligence that resulted in death.
In other developments, Zainul said Sabah is still dependent on contract doctors from other countries.
"Currently, there are about 600 doctors serving in the hospitals and clinics throughout Sabah of which a large number are contract doctors," he said.
He said it is the Government's aspiration to produce more doctors, particularly in Sabah, in order to increase (the quality of) services to the people.
Hence, Zainul said the setting up of medical schools is welcomed so that more doctors could be produced to offset the imbalance in the doctor-patient ratio.
He said it is heartening that more Malaysians from the peninsula are now coming to Sabah to study medicine here. Previously, he said, Sabah was the last choice for the medical students.
To the first batch of medical students who will be undergoing the clinical education programme at the QEH, he urged them to observe hospital regulations very closely including dressing appropriately for the occasion.
The students, most of whom are in their third year at the university, would be following doctors visiting patients.