Serdang Hospital to have new paediatric cardiac specialist unit

New Straits Times KUALA LUMPUR: The nation’s second paediatric cardiac specialist unit will be set up in Serdang Hospital by the end of this year.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said the es timated cost of setting up of the new specialist unit will be about RM20 million.
He said there was a need to increase the number of centres handling heart defects in babies due to the urgent nature of the condition.
“At the moment, we only have one such centre in National Heart Institute (IJN) which treats about 1,000 to 1,500 heart patients a year.
“Urgent cases are sent to local private hospitals or over seas,” he said, after visiting Serdang Hospital’s coronary care unit.
Liow made the visit his wife Datin Seri Lee Sun Loo in conjunction with Hari Raya Aidilfitri.
The new centre, he said will reduce the waiting time for babies to get much needed heart operations.
Regarding the ceiling collapse in Serdang Hospital on Aug 12, Liow said he had instructed the hospital director to get an audit of all the ceilings in the hospital with the help of the Public Works Department.
“We have to double check all the ceilings to protect the safety of the staff and patients as well as to ensure it does not happen again.
On another matter, Liow said the shift system for house man training was still under review although the feedback he had received so far was positive.
“The important thing is the quality of the housemen, if specialists are not happy with the performance of housemen, then we will review it.