My cousin broke him arm the other day and was rushed to the Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) for medical attention. He was warded and given some medication to relieve the pain but spent the night in agony.

The next morning he was told that he is on a waiting list to be operated on and his turn would be up in three weeks time. He fractured the radius and ulna of his arm and this required metal plates to be screwed onto the bones for support.

Upon hearing this, his parents were traumatised and feared that their son's recovery would be jeopardised due to the long waiting period before any corrective surgery is performed. They started to make enquiries with private hospitals as to the charges for such surgery.

To their shock, it costs somewhere between RM4,000 and RM8,000 for such an operation and they were in a dilemma as to how to pay for it.

While this was happening, my aunt had enquired from one of her friends who is working at Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (HUKM) and this person advised my aunt to admit her son to HUKM as they would be able provide a faster service (at semi-private hospital rates).

The questions I would like to raise is:

  1. Is it normal to have such a long waiting period wait for surgery? (There must be a lot of people breaking all sorts of bones daily and waiting for surgery.)

  • Is this lengthy waiting period due to a shortage of qualified doctors in government practice?

  • What are the standards in the First World for such cases?

  • What is the government doing about this?

  • Is there a Client's Charter for government hospitals?

    • My aunt's family was fortunate in that they can make financial arrangements for contingencies like this. I wonder what a family with a household income of less than RM2,000 a month will do?

    Are they just fated to wait for medical attention and suffer the consequences of such a wait? I'm sure it's happening to them.

    As long as such cases don't happen to the 'powers-that-be' they will never realise the plight of the poor rakyat. That is why they are more concerned with their mega-mega-projects rather than providing the most basic facilities for every citizen of this suffering nation.