Putrajaya Hospital also suffering; long waiting hours and limited beds, seats

PUTRAJAYA - Putrajaya Hospital, one of the government's coveted facilities, is not spared from the public healthcare’s system breakdown as patients are forced to wait for long hours in the emergency department with limited seats.

Following a viral Twitter posting on Tuesday, Sinar Daily had gone to the hospital to check the current conditions later that evening.

Many patients and their personal carers had been waiting since early morning without knowing when their turn would be.

A 58-year old daughter bringing her pancreatic cancer patient mother said she had arrived and registered at 9.30am but have not received any updates as of 4pm.

She, who wanted to be known as Laili, said her mother does not actually have any appointments today but had not been feeling well thus why she had walked-in to the hospital department.

When asked why she had came to the hospital instead of opting for private healthcare knowing well of the long waiting hours, Laili said her mother already had a record here and her doctor had called her up to do a medical check-up including some tests.

"I’m so tired. My mother must be more tired. I understand that there’s so many patients but it’s so sad for the patients who are suffering,” she, who works in the civil service said.

Meanwhile, a visitor named Noysahaman was visiting her relative, a diabetes patient having a leg surgery, expressed her “sadness” on how the public healthcare system had begun.

Something that was so good had turned for the worse now, the 51-year old housewife spoke about the hospital’s services.

She said her relative was admitted on Feb 6 for surgery but was only scheduled for the operation on Feb 10 at 8am but was only wheeled in at 1pm.

“The patient was really sick and he was sad because it took a lot of time.

"Yes, doctors always come to him to check, but they cannot do anything because there is a long queue to enter the operation theatre," she said.

Noysahaman said it was understandable that Dr Zaliha Mustafa was a new minister but things need to improve quick.

“There are so many patients here today especially kids. This can’t go on,” she added.

On Tuesday Twitter user @illuminayli posted a thread about the situation at Hospital Putrajaya with photos of patients lying down on the counter and floors as there were allegedly no beds available in the emergency department.

To be more sad, she also uploaded a photo of a baby who received treatment outside of the emergency room at the driveway.

“Our government hospitals need help. I am currently at Putrajaya Hospital (emergency). There are not enough doctors and nurses. Too many sick people. There are no systems in place. Not enough beds. Not enough seats for waiting families. No sanitary measures being taken.

"Not enough beds. Patients with IV drip needles are asked to wait in the emergency area. A kid was laying down on the counter due to no seats/places to lay down. He was asked to get up by the guard,” she said.

She also said that people were not getting urgent care and that there were not enough wheelchairs.

Last week there viral clip of a confrontation between a patient and Serdang Hospital’s staff uploaded by @bisma_ali05 on TikTok account.

She uploaded this video with the caption: "Yelling angrily at Serdang Hospital's cardiology waiting room, from 8am to 7pm, very bad service."

In the video, a man was seen shouting loudly, stating that his 73-year-old mother had been waiting for her appointment for a long time.

"There are sick people dying here, you know that?!", the man shouted.

The confrontation took place due to a long wait to get treatment. The patient was reported to have waited from 8am to 7pm.

Dr Zaliha apologised for the incident and said heart check-ups must be done thoroughly, which may cause a delay between each patient.

This led to a doctor @FarraDiana to write on Twitter that many were overworked due to minimal main power and influx of patients.

"We work a minimum of 14 hours a day with minimal pay. We don't even have time to eat, rush for our prayers and sometimes are unable to do so.

"We have minimal manpower to treat the influx of patients, (patients are) tired of waiting, we're triple tired. Don't blame doctors and nurses or any health worker, we are tired,” she posted.