Hospitals in Sabah treating the most foreigners

Star: KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s 21 hospitals are setting a national record for treating the highest number of foreigners in the country.
For instance, Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said, 30% of those seeking treatment at the hospital in Lahad Datu district were foreigners.
He said Sabah had a hospital-to-local population ratio of 1:120,000, which was adequate for the local population of 2.9 million.
“However, foreigners using our hospitals bring a lot of problems with them such as non-payment of bills, use of fake identification documents and pregnancy complications because most of them do not undergo antenatal treatment,” he said after a briefing by Sabah Medical and Health Services Department officials here.
Sabah has an unofficial estimated population of 500,000 foreigners.
Dr Chua said many foreigners also sought treatment for diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, dengue, cholera and typhoid.
Noting that Sabah had a high incidence of communicable diseases, with 3,267 malaria and 3,394 tuberculosis cases reported last year, he said his ministry would be emphasising preventive measures under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP).
Dr Chua said his ministry had allocated RM746mil for Sabah under the 9MP.