I read with interest and curiosity our prime minister’s announcement on the new promotion and pay scale for the government doctors and other medical personnel. While this is long overdue, I think that public healthcare in Malaysia needs more than just this.

My aged mother was admitted to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital (KLH) last week for what I believe was an epileptic seizure. The emergency response team was brilliant and they revived my mother to a stable condition soon after admission.

What followed after her admission was a nightmare. My mother was in the Third Class Ward while awaiting transfer to another ward. One needs to visit this ward to have a general understanding of where our government’s priorities are.

To begin with, the ward has insufficient beds and makeshift beds had been added filling the walkway and every bit of open space. There is a single ceiling fan not strategically located, serving some 20 patients on either sides of a row.

There could be close 70 or more patients in that ward alone. The only windows are those with glass panes located at one far end, allowing minimal ventilation in the wards. I don’t need to mention the toilets and I’ll leave that to the readers’ imagination.

On a hot afternoon, imagine the patients having to sweat it out in the ward. What about those who are bedridden? The heat, without proper ventilation, would be the cause of other problems such as bed sores and so on.

Coming to my mother. A full day in the hospital and she was not given the medicine for her seizure and only when I asked was she given the medication. Apart from that, her sugar level was said to be low and while this information was relayed to us in afternoon, the doctors and nurses did nothing to address it.

My mother needs to sit up when being fed but up to late evening on the first day of admission, my mother was without food until 8pm as she was put on a bed which could not be raised. She was not fed until a special bed was found. With her sugar level already low, we were at wits’ end on what to do.

Speaking for the scores of patients who do not have the means to write or speak for themselves, I was told the hospital does not even have pillows to go around.

I do not blame the doctors or nurses for as human beings, they all have their capacity. I could see that the nurses were having their hands full attending to the patients and the doctors looked equally done in.

I also notice that in KLH, the doctors do not keep the patient and the next-of-kin informed of what has been done and what more needs to be done. Is it not the right of the patient to have such information communicated to him/ her?

Access to decent public healthcare is every citizen’s right and the government’s obligation so I fail to understand how our government could disregard this and instead spend millions on other projects.

There are newer hospitals being built in many parts of the Klang Valley but are they accessible to the poorer citizens who may not have the means to travel the distance? KLH’s strategic location in the city centre makes it popular, The hospital needs urgent upgrading in terms of space, to begin with.