Health Minister Dr Chua Soi Lek's statement that 30 percent of patients in Sabah's Lahad Datu hospital are foreigners has been described as a 'gross underestimation' by a local non-governmental organisation.

This can be confirmed by those living in Lahad Datu, said Consumer Association of Sabah and Labuan FT (Cash) secretary-general Joshua Kong.

"If you look at the explosive population growth in the last two decades in Lahad Datu and some other major towns, I think the foreign portion is 65:35 local," he claimed.

Foreign patients could be in the region of at least 55 percent, including the Extra People with Identity Cards (Epic), he added.

Kong told malaysiakini that the scenario was not only confined to Lahad Datu but throughout other major towns in Sabah.

NGO leaders claimed that because the government tends to underestimate the number of foreigners in Sabah, the development and expansion of medical and health facilities services have not kept up with the actual population growth.

Sabah's population is now estimated at 3.3 million, the majority being foreigners.

In Kota Kinabalu last week, Chua said 30 percent of those seeking treatment in the Lahad Datu hospital were foreigners.

He also added that the hospital-to-local population ratio of 1:120,000 was adequate.

Break it down

Kong said he hoped that the minister ( left ) would break the figures into IMM13, undocumented foreigners, fake documented foreigners, and dubious (project IC) citizens (Epic) to provide an appropriate picture.

"Maybe many of our departments are unaware of such categories and would simply classify them as foreigners based on their dialects and behaviour," he added.

Sabah's 21 hospitals are setting a national record for treating the highest number of foreigners in the country.

According to the minister, foreigners using local hospitals cause numerous problems such as non-payment of bills, using fake identification documents and pregnancy complications because most of them do not undergo antenatal treatment.

Chua said many foreigners also sought treatment for diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, dengue, cholera and typhoid.

He added that Sabah suffers from a high incidence of communicable diseases, with 3,267 malaria and 3,394 tuberculosis cases reported last year.

In view of this, Chua said his ministry would emphasise on preventive measures under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP).