Nothing amiss in system at QE1, says Dept
Published on: Sunday, June 24, 2018
Kota Kinabalu: State Health director Datuk Dr Christina Rundi (pic) said there is no problem with the queue numbering system in the Specialist Clinic at QE1 as it practises the block system where patients come according to the schedule stated on the treatment card."As for the pharmacy, there are two counters – Counter 2 and Counter 6, for senior citizens, people with disability, pregnant patients and pensioners (R-Lane)."These counters were labelled accordingly so that the public will be aware about it.
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"Apart from that, there are three other counters – two for other patients and another counter (express counter) is for prescription with less than five types of medicines," she said in a statement, Saturday.She was commenting on a complaint by a patient who sympathised over the long wait senior citizens and the disabled had to endure, as previously those in the category were served much earlier at Queen Elizabeth Hospital 1.She also refuted that the photo accompanying the report was taken at the specialist clinic, saying it was probably at the blood collection centre.Stella, a patient, had urged the new Pakatan Harapan-led government to rescind the ruling issued under the previous Barisan Nasional government.
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Rundi said several measures were taken to improve the service quality at the blood collection centre."Three staff were designated to collect blood for the disabled and senior citizens while three other staff will serve other patients, as compared to only one staff to serve senior citizens and the disabled previously.
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"To reduce congestion, the centre also operates during the weekends from 7.30am-1pm, but closes during public holidays," she said.She further explained the number of patients who came to the centre was about 250 daily and most of them were senior citizens and people with disability."The eTPPD (patient appointment system at the blood collection centre) application was also developed to establish an online system to enable clinics in QEH to set appointment for patients who need to get their blood taken at the centre."The system aims to coordinate blood collection management, reduce congestion and complaints, as well as to set up a database."It is still under a test run process and it is expected to be ready by this year."On medicine supply, Rundi said, the hospital experienced a problem earlier this year due to the instability of the new acquisition system (ePerolehan) which affected the process of issuing Local Purchase Orders (LPO)."The system had problems during the transition from the old acquisition system to the new one."As such, it affected the acquisition of medicine under concession, contract, or direct purchase," she said.Apart from that, medicine suppliers could not cater to the needs of hospitals during the period due the change on the medicine usage indications."The problems were caused by various factors and at the moment, to ensure medicine supply for all patients could be continued, the supplies are given on weekly basis."We regret such situation occurred and we understand the inconveniences felt by patients due to the shortage of medicine supply."The department will try its best to solve this problem as soon as possible."As for the Computed Tomography (CT) scanning machine which was claimed to be prone to breakdown, she said, the department has always monitored its services for patients."QEH has two CT scanning machines – one at the main building which was bought in 2010 and another machine, bought in 2014, at the Emergency Department."The optimum usage for the machine is around 20 cases per day. However, on average, it was used for 20-30 cases."The highest record of usage was for the machine at the Emergency Department, which was 47 cases," she said.She said, as of June 21, this year, the number of usages is 6,731 cases and last year, it was 13,408 cases."This shows a high work load for both machines."On June 1, this year, she said, both machines were experiencing a breakdown."However, the machine at the main building has been repaired while the other machine faced a major breakdown and it has to wait for spare parts from abroad.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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