KUCHING: Services at the Radiotherapy, Oncology and Palliative Care Department of the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) were not significantly affected even though one of its conventional planning-simulators was down due to a damaged X-ray tube on May 16.
SGH director Dr Abdul Rahim Abdullah said the department did not suffer any pronounced delay in the treatment of patients and that arrangements were also made for patients to be treated at its heart centre.
“Although there is a little bit of down time, the situation did not put any patient at risk nor did it affect treatment waiting time. It was manageable.
“The radiotherapy department is very good and sufficient. In fact, it has one of the shortest waiting lists in the country, where new patients only need to wait about three to four weeks compared to six to eight weeks at Kuala Lumpur Hospital,” he told The Borneo Post when contacted yesterday.
Dr Abdul Rahim added that the new X-ray tube was expected to arrive on June 17.
On May 16, lightning disrupted power supply at the Radiotherapy, Oncology and Palliative Care Department, causing the conventional planning-simulator to become inoperative.
This led Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How to pay a visit to the hospital last Friday after being alerted by patients.
It was reported in newspapers yesterday that See deemed the scheduled arrival of the spare parts on June 17 as unacceptable considering the importance of the equipment.
He said the simulator was used to treat at least 30 patients weekly. In addition, he said it was unacceptable that the delivery of the X-ray tube from Europe to SGH took more than four weeks.
See added that the waste of time in mapping and planning of the radiotherapy treatments for patients was detrimental to the health of cancer patients.
He opined that it was imperative for SGH and the Health Department to lodge a formal complaint with the Health Ministry to put on record the delay in the repair and restoration of this important medical equipment.
Dr Abdul Rahim responded that the bio-medical services support company had been in constant communication with SGH about the status of the delivery. He noted that the company was quick and very responsive on the matter.
“There is no negligence on the hospital’s bio-medical support service company. The company even footed the RM50,000 cost to replace the damaged parts. We are very satisfied with their services.”
He also mentioned that SGH did not keep extra parts of certain equipment that are not regularly used to avoid wastage if the parts were kept for long periods of time.
On the suggestion by See, who is also state PKR vice-chairman, for the Health Ministry to appoint more bio-medical service companies to avoid monopolisation of essential hospital support services throughout the country, Dr Abdul Rahim said this was a matter of policy.
Source: sabah & sarawak news
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