Dr. R. Pathamanathan

Chairman

MAB

Dear Dr. Pathmanathan,

            On the _________ I had two patients scheduled on my routine operating list. The first patient _____________________ completed the operation @1510hr. I did not get to start my second case _________________________ until 1635hr. I was delayed by 1hr 20min.

            The reason for the delay was that my anaesthetist, ___________ was asked to attend to an emergency in ICU. The emergency anaesthetist on that day was _______________ who was involved in a case in the South Tower Operating Theater.

            I wish to bring to your attention that I am most unhappy that my scheduled list should be delayed and patients made to suffer because of a weakness in the hospital's coverage of an important area of the hospital such as the ICU. There have been many occasions that medical staff using the critical areas like ICU, CCU, Cardiac Lab and paediatric ward have found the services of a medical personnel that can help with resuscitation sorely missing. Many complaints both verbal and in writing have been made to the hospital administration.

            So far no effective remedy has been found. The anaesthetists as a group have been given the responsibility of covering these sporadic but acute emergencies. Their recommendation to the hospital is that whoever the anaesthetists that is free will attend to such emergencies because it is not worth their while to have an anaesthetist standby full time for such cases.

            Subang Jaya Medical Centre prides itself as a tertiary health care provider. Subang Jaya Medical Centre carries out neuro surgery, cardiac surgery, transplant surgery and all kinds of major procedures for oncology. Our ICU, CCU and HDU have many very sick patients all the time. Yet, we accept such a unsatisfactory stop gap arrangement for these patients who are ill and can require life saving procedures at any time. There is a glaring hole in our system that needs to be plugged. If no solution is forthcoming from the group that has been asked to solve this problem, I suggest that the hospital employs medical personnel (like the ER Medical Officers) to service these areas.

            I am sure patients will not mind paying for such services. The reputation of such coverage can only stand us in good stead.

            I hope you will do something about this, so that those doctors with scheduled lists and their patients on such lists will not have to endure similar inconveniences in the future.

Thank You.

Yours sincerely,

c.c.     Dato' Dr. Jacob Thomas

c.c.     Dr. Husain HJ, Said, Chairman OT SubCommittee.

SUBANG JAYA MEDICAL CENTRE SDN. BHD.

(Company No. 87533-X)

No. 1, Jalan SS 12/1 A,

47500 Subang Jaya,

Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-7341212 (Appointments: 03-7341515)

Fax: 03-7335910

A member of the Sime Darby Group