Deputy Minister Saravanan Catches HKL Doctors 'Napping'

KUALA LUMPUR, April 26 (Bernama) -- Deputy Minister of Federal Territories Datuk M. Saravanan today "caught" two doctors at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL) emergency department reading newspapers and doing their own stuff instead of attending to more than 20 patients in pain waiting for treatment.

Saravanan made the shocking discovery at about 10.30am when he went to the hospital to visit a university student who was injured after he was knocked down by a car driven by his (Saravanan's) driver.

"I, too, waited for a while for the girl to be treated and, realising that none of the patients were being called in by the doctors, I opened the door to the treatment room.

I was shocked to find one doctor reading a newspaper and the other minding his own business and doing his own stuff.

"There were more than 20 patients outside waiting for treatment. This should not be the way doctors work. The patient should come first.

Furthermore, it is an emergency unit, which is supposed to be fast in dispensing treatment," the visibly irked Saravanan told Bernama.

The deputy minister said he reprimanded the doctors for their behaviour and demanded to see a superior who, he said, appeared after 30 minutes.

"After that, those waiting were promptly treated. Why couldn't the doctors attend to the patients first? This should not be the way service at government hospitals is dispensed," he said.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, in one of his surprise visits to the city centre yesterday, said he wanted front-line government establishments in the federal capital to improve their services to the people.

Saravanan said that though he had caught the doctors by chance, he would from now on make it a point to conduct surprise visits to departments under his ministry to ensure that front-line staff did their job of serving the people.

"This is an eye-opener. We, as leaders, just cannot afford to pay lip service and not check whether work is done by the front-line government servants. We have to go down (to the ground) to ensure that speedy solutions are found for the people's problems.

"What more in this case where people are in pain and undergoing agony due to the pain. If they were not suffering, they would not have come to the emergency unit. This is a lesson for all hospitals. Please work for the people if you are in the civil service," he said.

Meanwhile, HKL director Datuk Dr Zaininah Mohd Zain, in responding to Saravanan's remarks, said the hospital would get details of the incident and if there was any element of irresponsibility, it would be the first to take the appropriate action.

She said the hospital's investigation showed that there were only eight patients and 20 relatives and that none of the patients was in pain because "we practise holistic pain care service and pain (is assessed) as the fifth vital sign".

"Our hardworking doctors are but human," she said, adding that browsing a newspaper when there were no cases in his (doctor's) room should not be interpreted as neglecting his responsibility.

"We do not condone lazy or irresponsible doctors but (having) understanding, caring and hardworking doctors is also our obligation," she said in a text message to Bernama.

Dr Zaininah said the HKL Emergency Department was a very busy department that managed 550 cases per day and was served by six medical officers in every eight-hour shift (of three shifts per day) with one specialist, one consultant and one (supervising) senior consultant per day.

"The challenge of patient loads is ever increasing, up to 30 per cent due to the current economic crisis."Despite this situation, we have served well in a systematic manner with the triage system to sort out and manage cases according to priority," she said.

Dr Zaininah said HKL would continue to evaluate, supervise and maintain a high quality of service but support and understanding from the public were crucial to sustaining a high standard of service continuously.-- BERNAMA