State-of-the-art operating theatres for hospitals

Star: The operation theatres at 45 government hospitals in the country will be upgraded and equipped with state-of-the-art technology surpassing that at private hospitals.
Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad said, under the Ninth Malaysia Plan, services at the operation theatres would be improved to cater for the increasing number of surgeries at government hospitals.
“We have a backlog of elective surgeries. With the improved technology, the services at government hospitals will be more efficient,” he told reporters after attending a Hari Raya gathering at Sungai Petani Hospital here yesterday.
Dr Latiff also said specialised surgeries such as laproscopy and hysterectomy were now available at Sungai Petani Hospital.
Such surgeries, he added, were being performed by one of the country’s top surgeons now attached to the hospital.
Earlier, in his speech, he urged the hospital’s medical staff to be patient and steadfast in handling public complaints and to view them constructively. He added that government hospitals now faced bigger challenges as patients today were more knowledgeable.
“In the old days, patients did not question their doctors as they fully relied on the experts’ opinions.”
He said the annual expenses incurred by government hospitals nationwide amounted to RM7bil, but the hospitals only collected revenue of RM125mil a year from patients.