The temporary halt on blood tests conducted by the Pathological Department of Klang’s Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital (HTAR) only affects those done for instructional purposes and not for emergency or treatment purposes, said Selangor Health Department director Dr Zailan Adnan.

“Sometimes we have to reduce the number of tests. Some tests are part of the instructional process, for knowledge and to teach, some are for critical purposes such as for diagnosis of patients being treated.

“So now we focus on tests for patients being treated, while we wait for allocations to arrive,” Dr Zailan told Malaysiakini.

However, Dr Zailan assured all that the Health Ministry has already allocated additional funding for the hospital.

“The ministry has cleared additional funds for emergency purposes in the interim and the allocation will last until the end of the year. With the allocation there is no longer a problem,” said Dr Zailan.

Zailan stressed that they must still be careful to ensure that the allocation is spent based on actual needs across the board.

“We are dealing with large numbers of patients and at times, cases like this will happen as there are more patients than we budgeted for.

“Selangor has a lot of amenities, but at times there is a mismatch between areas, some have less, some have more, we have to ensure it is uniform,” he said.

Malaysiakini has previously been informed that HTAR had to temporarily suspend blood tests at its Pathological Department as the hospital is facing a shortage of funds to purchase related medical supplies.

This was according to a hospital circular which was shared on social media.

'Circular not unusual'

Commenting further on the matter, Zailan said that there was no need to spread the circular on social media.

He said that this is as the hospital regularly issues such circulars as a means and reminder to ensure that all treatments and tests are used judiciously.

“There was no need to distribute the circular as we regularly issue such reminders. If previously we spent lavishly, ordering supplies at one go, but for now we have to spend carefully.

“Sometimes certain officers when we tell them to reduce the tests, they do not understand and instead stop it totally, but for emergency treatments we still go on,” said Dr Zailan.

Furthermore, Dr Zailan clarified that not all patients will require tests to be done by the Pathological Department.

“We do not need to perform tests on all cases, we will start with patient history and then list down their possible ailments,” explained Dr Zailan.