Hospital probes claim of negligence

Star: SUNGAI PETANI: The Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital (SAHH) is investigating an allegation that two medical officers refused to treat a girl and did not arrange for an ambulance to send her for treatment.
V. Monishaa, 15, died of meningitis sepsis, or viral infection in the brain, last Tuesday.
The same day, her mother L.N. Janet Mary, 38, lodged a police report against the hospital for negligence.
Janet Mary claimed the two medical officers refused to treat Monishaa when they went to the hospital on Monday at about 1.30pm and referred her for outpatient treatment at the Sungei Petani Hospital (SPH) instead.
They also refused to arrange for an ambulance to send the girl, who was on the verge of collapsing.
As a result, Janet Mary said she and her husband had to send Monishaa on a motorcycle to SPH.
Janet Mary, from Taman Keladi here, claimed that Monishaa’s life could have been saved had the medical officers diagnosed her condition quickly and warded her daughter.
Hospital director Dr Harif Fadzilah Che Hashim said an independent committee was set up yesterday, comprising several specialists and doctors from SAHH and a private specialist hospital here, to investigate the case.
He told The Star yesterday that if Janet Mary's allegation was true, SAHH would not hesitate to take disciplinary action against the medical officers named in the police report.
He also urged other family members with similar allegations of negligence by the hospital staff to come forward.
They can contact the hospital’s public complaints’ department at 04-448 0333 or Dr Harif at 019-475 0052, or his deputy Dr Soo Chu Kong at 012-584 5662.