Send your grouses to me, says Health D-G

NST: Don’t go to the Press. Come to me.
That is the message from Health Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Ismail Merican to those with complaints against government health and medical staff.
"I have received many complaints and have resolved most of them faster and more efficiently.
"By relating it directly to me, no one can overplay any issue," he said after paying a courtesy call on Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid at his office in Wisma Darul Aman here.
Dr Ismail said he was always receptive to complaints and had been devoting his weekends to reading every letter sent to him.
"Most complaints are due to misunderstandings between our hospital staff and the public. As such, I want our staff to spend more time explaining to the public their illnesses, the types of medication prescribed and their side-effects, if any," he said.
Asked about a rubber tapper’s claim that his wife died due to a power failure while undergoing haemodialysis at the Baling Hospital last December, he said it was not so.
"We have a back-up generator at the hospital. The woman was also not undergoing any treatment when the power failure occurred," he said.
Normah Yub, 53, died 22 days after the power outage. Husband Mohd Zainol Ismail, also 53, insisted that the power failure had led to her death.
On the delay in the opening of the new hospital here and another in Sungai Petani, he said they would be completed this year.
"Don’t blame us for the delay. It’s the contractors’ fault."