New centre launched in Selayang Hospital

The Star KUALA LUMPUR: The first hospital visitors' accommodation and one-stop-centre child and adolescent psychiatry clinic were launched at the Selayang Hospital on Tuesday.
Health Minister Datuk Chua Soi Lek said the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry contributed almost RM500,000 to the two projects, which were a joint effort between the National Welfare Foundation and the Selayang Hospital.
Chua said the free visitors' accommodation Anjung Kasih, with RM50 returnable deposit, catered for the poor from outside the Klang Valley who are caring for the very sick at the hospital and could not afford to pay for accommodation.
"It is our hope that state hospitals will provide visitors' accommodation such as that is provided in this hospital," he said.
The other hospitals that had been identified for the setting up of such accommodation are the Kuala Lumpur Hospital and hospitals in Kelantan, Trengganu, Kedah and Sabah, said Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, who officially launched the two projects with Chua.
The accommodation at Selayang Hospital, which started out as a Visitors' Hall, was upgraded to 18 rooms.
"Since the hospital was upgraded, it has received positive feedback from 43 families who have used the facilities in August and September," said Shahrizat.
Chua said the number of children and teenagers who went to the Psychiatric Clinic at the Selayang Hospital increased from 285 children in 2002 to 1079 last year.
At the clinic cum one-stop-centre, MeKAR, children and teenagers from ages two to 17 who experience autism, school refusal, conduct disorder, depressive disorder, attention deficit disorder and schizophrenia receive treatment, he said.
"They and their families receive counselling, behaviour modification, speech therapy, occupational therapy and other treatments," he said.