Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Ailing Klang Hospital - No Maintenance Framework

POOR MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT OR NO Maintenance Management?



HOSPITAL WOES

DO WE HAVE PROPER MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT OF HOSPITALS
OR WE ONLY CARRY OUT DEFECTS & RECTIFICATION MANAGEMENT AS THEY OCCUR?

The Star Front-page: Ailing Hospital:
SEPTEMBER 14, 2004

Services at the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital in Klang, which has the country's second busiest emergency ward, have been badly hit by faulty air-conditioning. All elective surgeries have been postponed at the hospital, which schedules about 20 such operations daily.

A doctor claimed that the air-conditioning system had broken down “a few hundred” times over the past two years in different units, with some breakdowns lasting from a few hours to eight days.

“Sometimes, they happen a few times a day. We have the records to prove this."

Hospital deputy director Dr Ismail Mohd Yusoff said he had done his best by bringing the problem up with the authorities. “The Cabinet and the highest level in the Health Ministry know about our plight. “Many say they empathise with us, but we are still waiting for the funding,” he said.

Pak Lah had just delivered his budget and we wonder whether the state of affairs in hospitals had been addressed in the prevailing budget.

Often, we read of budget that projects the prospective future but rarely address the problems that we had been facing, such as the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital in Klang. This is not the only hospital that is facing the problem of poor maintenance management system. Many government buildings and facilities are also in dire straits.

The question arise:

"Do we have an effective Hospital & Public Facility Maintenance Management System in place or do the government and local authorities manage maintenance as and when the problem arises? Its ironical to hear from THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR of the hospital that the Cabinet and the Health Ministry had been informed of the critical problems that had existed for so many years and that they had known of the problem and are empathetic towards the hospital staffs but are waiting for the fundings. If thats the case, then what is the yearly budget trying to address? The government spent tens of billions each year on building highways and roads and are proposing to spent a few more billions on Penang Second Bridge but what about the maintenance of all existing government facilities and buildings?

Isn't this SYSTEMIC FAILURE????
CAKAP TAK SERUPA BIKIN.