"First eight hours of horror" - Covid-19 patient laments about condition of hospital facilities

SHAH ALAM - A Covid-19 quarantine patient has lamented about the condition of the Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL) maternity ward, describing it as “the first eight hours of horror”.

Instagram user Alia Nordin had in an "open letter" to the Health Ministry stated that she and her two-month old baby were instructed to quarantine at the hospital as they had Covid-19 symptoms.

When contacted by Sinar Daily, she said she wanted the ward to be shut down until it was fit enough to cater mothers and their babies.

She added that she wanted authorities to take action not only because the matter went viral.

On her Instagram post, the mother of three expressed her sadness and disappointment about the condition of the hospital ward.

As she arrived at the hospital on Wednesday at about 9pm, she said it was too scary that she did not even dare go to the bathroom until the next morning at dawn.

Alia said there was no clean and suitable sinks for mothers to clean their breast pump equipment and bathe their newborn babies, adding that the fridge provided was not in the best condition which made her question whether or not it was safe to store her expressed breast milk.

The patient also said there was no specified space for mothers to breastfeed their babies or pump, leaving them to do it out in the open in front of the other Covid-19 patients.

The mother however, emphasised that all the doctors and nurses were kind and extremely helpful.

“My complaint here is purely on the hospital facilities. I hope YB could come down here and look and think if you would ever let your wife, siblings or family members to be quarantined, here, in such condition?”

“I am still here and I can bring you for a tour if you are willing to,” she wrote, addressing Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin and Health Director-General Tan Sri Noor Hisham Abdullah.

The patient said she was not demanding for a first class service and did not even mind being quarantined in a government facility, but it should at least be well equipped and clean for mothers and their newborns to stay in.

The post was created on March 31 and has since garnered over 12,000 likes.

In a more recent post, she uploaded a conversation between her and another patient in the ward stating that the bathroom facilities had been cleaned and the shower had been repaired following her Instagram post about the condition.

Another patient named Wahida said the last time she was quarantined in the ward, there were no cleaners and breakfast also arrived late which led her to call the ministry and lodge a report.

She said only after that, the facilities were being cleaned.

"Imagine, there were two to three incidents where a mom carrying their babies nearly slipped on the floor.

"I even complained to the doctor (who was making rounds at that time) and said if anyone had fell, would they want to be responsible for it?. The doctor then took a photo and sent it to someone.

"Me and the others in the ward felt extremely down at that point. It was a nightmare," she said.