If you are attacked by robbers and left dying in the street or in your home, don't expect Penang's private hospitals to rush out to save your life. They will not send an ambulance and not take you in. Why?

Apparently their doctors' time is too precious to spend on police reports! They must concentrate on making money for the hospital, not save unknown lives. That saving is left to the General Hospital (bless you, GH).

I was shocked when learning that this was why a leading private hospital did not send an ambulance to pick up a security guard who had been stabbed in the throat recently. Then I found out that it is a well-known secret that private hospitals refuse to handle any 'police cases' for fear of being trapped in paper work or court appearances.

They would rather leave victims bleeding to death than perform their primary medical function - saving lives.

It is time to denounce this unethical greed and the Ministry of Health must be called upon to stop closing its eyes but revoke the licences of private institutions that systematically refuse to aid those in dire need.