IPOH: A food seller and his ailing mother were made to wait for about two hours for help at the Slim River Hospital emergency ward.
The man, who wanted to be known only as Lee, said his 75-year-old mother was feeling unwell due to high blood pressure.
“The incident occurred about four months ago when she was referred to the hospital by a doctor at a private clinic.
“Having reached there, we were given the runaround by the hospital staff,” he said when contacted.
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Lee, 45, recalled feeling anxious as his mother’s blood pressure was very high at 200.
“I had to contact someone who knew the hospital director before two doctors attended to her,” he said.
Lee said he understood that there were many patients and insufficient staff, but two hours of waiting was unacceptable.
“I could also see that the staff there were unhappy.
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“After being checked by the doctors and given intravenous therapy, my mother was discharged,” he said.
Lee added that while such a situation might be “normal” in big towns, it should not be the case for smaller places like Slim River.
Separately, a patient who suffered from breathing difficulties said she had waited for two hours at a hospital in Penang before an emergency physician attended to her.
“I went there at midnight and was only warded by 7am,” said the 69-year-old, who was eventually treated for internal bleeding.
Another patient said she waited for about three hours at a hospital in the Klang Valley.
“I was down with food poisoning. When I arrived there, it was quite packed,” she said.
Last year, The Star reported that patients at government facilities can face wait times of up to six hours at understaffed clinics, with doctors attending to between 80 and 100 patients a day.
