Malaysians Say The Darndest Things!

Chua Soi Lek: If You’re Not Satisfied With Our Hospital, Don’t Come

December 11, 2007

Remember the case of the baby whose arm had to be amputated because of negligence? The government has finally decided on a compensation figure for baby Yok Shan. Quick, if you don’t know already, guess how much they compensation is! The answer is:

RM60,000! To have a limb amputated because of a medical mistake. RM60,000 for the rest of the baby’s life, for all the pain caused, for all the hopes for her future dashed:

Thankfully, the parents are not taking this compensation figure, and are filing a RM2 million suit against the government. How can you pay billions of dollars for a crooked bridge that was never built? How can you pay billions of dollars to bail out the Port Klang Free Zone? Heck, how do we even pay RM200 for a set of screwdrivers? One arm = 300 sets of screwdrivers.

For more information on baby Yok Shan, visit her blog.

So with that said, I hope the parents win the suit against the government and the hospital. The right thing to do was for the government to either negotiate and pay more, or just let the legal process decide.

Of course, Malaysians have been accustomed to arrogant politicians and ministers who always have to have the last say, no matter how irrelevant, stupid, or disgusting they will sound. The following gem comes from no other than our Health Minister Chua Soi Lek.

As reported in New Straits Times:

KUALA LUMPUR: Medical mistakes happen, no matter how careful the doctors are, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek said yesterday.
“Even in the best hospitals in the world, mistakes still happen. In Malaysia, the rate is between three and five per cent, which is acceptable,” he said after launching the National AIDS conference.

Chua said government hospitals treated about 39 million outpatients as well as some 1.9 million admissions each year.

“We can imagine that even in the best situations some mistakes will still happen.”

He said patients who were not satisfied with the services provided by government hospitals could lodge complaints.
“We give a guarantee that if there is a basis for a complaint, it will be investigated by a committee comprising experts from the private sector to increase their confidence.

“In the case that happened in Klang, we don’t understand why there was so much publicity.

“If they are not satisfied with our service, then why come to our hospital? They came on Nov 26. According to logic, if you don’t have confidence in our doctors, then why come?”

He said the parents had to be rational.

“Whatever mistakes that happened, we have already admitted it publicly and apologised. We are sincere in doing what is best,” he said.

In the Klang case, a man is suing the government for RM2 million over a bungled hospital procedure that resulted in the amputation of his baby’s forearm.

I’m not going to argue statistics here. If what Chua said is true, then the medical negligence here is really a rare case. Then why so stingy? Would anyone go and amputate their healthy arm for a compensated sum worth 300 sets of screwdrivers?

And I don’t know about you, but last I checked, government hospitals are funded by taxpayers, and so are your bloody wages and benefits. Are we wrong to expect hospitals to give us decent health care, and not screw things up and end up with an amputated arm? An amputated arm due to negligence is not decent health care. It’s atrocious health care!

And we cannot expect a public admission and apology to solve all the problems. MCA should know. They dragged the Negarakuku rapper’s father out in a press conference to apologize, but the guy was still ripped to pieces by MCA’s masters UMNO.

Chua Soi Lek, a lot of politicians stoop really low to achieve whatever political ground they can. But what you just said, is among the lowest of the low. Words that would come out from a scum’s mouth. Look in the mirror and ask yourself if you deserve to be Health Minister.

Chua Soi Lek says the darndest things!

P.S. All ‘takdir Tuhan’ or ‘God’s fate’ comments will not be entertained.

Other views on the blogosphere:
Zero-negligence in hospitals and not Chua Soi Lek’s “medical mistakes inevitable” (Lim Kit Siang)
Baby Yok Shan (Tony Pua)
Chua Soi Lek, you’re a fuckface and a bastard. (ShadowFox)

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