Hospital needs a solution, fast

NST: KLANG: Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital is bursting at its seams and is resorting to borrowing beds from district hospitals to cope with the patient load.
It is even busier than the much larger Kuala Lumpur Hospital.
The hospital had been struggling to cope with the population increase over the years, but the situation had worsened of late because of the dengue epidemic and the economic slowdown.
Hospital director Dr Ghazali Hasni Md Hassan said the hospital's patient load had been steadily increasing since 2005.
"We never turn patients away. Patients are placed even on temporary beds.
"It's another 10 per cent increase this year and this is worrying as we are truly running out of space for admissions, especially in the medical wards."
He said although other hospitals such as in Banting, Tanjung Karang and Sungai Buloh were willing to "lend" their beds to patients from the hospital, many patients refused to be transferred.
The 14-year-old Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital has 893 beds, while Tanjung Karang Hospital has 114 beds, Sabak Bernam Hospital 93 beds and Banting Hospital 151 beds.
The number of admissions shot up from 69,105 in 2000 to 83,251 last year.
Dr Ghazali said he was concerned that doctors and nurses could not provide the best care.
He said the average length of admission for medical wards was now 3.94 days, compared with 4.94 days in 2000.
"With some 230 admissions daily, we have to discharge an equal number to accommodate new ones."
The high incidence of dengue has worsened the situation as the hospital's two dengue wards cannot cope with the average of 565 suspected dengue admissions per month.
"Every day, we have at least 20 (suspected) dengue admissions. Where are we to place them?" said Dr Ghazali.
Kuala Lumpur Hospital, which has 475 beds in its medical wards, had 23,680 admissions in 2007 and 27,681 last year.
In comparison, Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital's 231 beds accommodated 23,066 patients in 2007 and 25,750 last year.
Dr Ghazali said the only solution was to build a new hospital to cater to the two million people that the current hospital serves.
The Klang hospital also has the second highest delivery of babies in the country, with some 13,000 to 14,000 a year.
Dr Ghazali hoped the Health Ministry would start work on the 120-bed obstetrics block soon.
The present maternity wards could be converted to medical wards once the new ward comes into service.
"The 300-bed Shah Alam Hospital, which is expected to be operational in two years, may not be a big help as by then the population in that district would also have increased."