Health Ministry planning shorter hospitalisation for some cases

Star: MIRI: The Health Ministry is to implement plans whereby patients with not too serious ailments and those undergoing minor surgeries would be discharged six to seven hours after admission so that they need not have to stay overnight in the hospital.
The ministry is now working out details on how to implement this plan. It would outline criteria to ascertain those patients who can be discharged without having to stay overnight.
They will be allowed to go home after they have rested for seven hours in the hospital ward, but they would be given more intensive and comprehensive follow-up treatment thereafter.
This "very short time spent in hospital, but more intensive and comprehensive follow-up treatments idea" may be the solution to clearing the congestions experienced in hospitals in the country, said Ministry Parliamentary-secretary Datuk Lee Kah Choon.
The ministry feels that through this method, both the patients and the hospitals would benefit, he said.
"This way, they can recuperate in the comfort of their home surroundings and we won't have to clog up our hospitals.
"Hospital beds can then be reserved for more urgent and serious cases and for patients who come from far away places," he told a press conference here on Friday.
Lee was here to start a four-day visit to Miri and surrounding areas as part of inspection of health facilities in various regions in the country.