Mortuary fridges among pressing needs for Tenom hospital, says MP

Riduan (left) inspecting the broken mortuary fridges at the Tenom Hospital.

KOTA KINABALU: Residents in Sabah’s interior Tenom district have high hopes that new Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa will listen to their calls for better health facilities.

This includes the pressing need to replace the mortuary fridges at the Tenom Hospital morgue, said Tenom MP Riduan Rubin.

Riduan said this issue has been a bane for the people, as the remains of their loved ones had to be sent and kept at the district hospital in neighbouring Keningau.

In certain cases, according to him, some of the remains had to be buried immediately as there was no storage to keep the bodies.

“The problem of the refrigerated cabinets at the Tenom Hospital has been happening for a long time,” he said, after a visit to the hospital on Tuesday (Dec 6) after receiving numerous complaints from the public.

“Hence, I hope the Health Ministry and Sabah Health Department can resolve the issue as soon as possible.

“I am hoping the new Health Minister Dr Zaliha will prioritise the pleas of Tenom residents who are yearning for good health services as well as adequate infrastructure,” Riduan added.

Besides the fridges, he said other facilities that needed attention from the ministry were the run-down condition of the autopsy room, lack of dialysis machines and the water problem arising due to the water tank with low capacity.

He added that there were other equipment that needed to be replaced as well as the general condition of the hospital.

“It’s high time that the Health Ministry upgrade the Tenom Hospital and replace the old equipment with new ones because the people expect a quality health service from the unity Federal Government,” he said.