KUALA LUMPUR – The government has been urged to prioritise upgrading Muar Hospital, with more parking spaces for the public and at least 10 ambulance units for the facility.
Speaking at the Dewan Rakyat, today, Tan Hong Pin (Bakri-PH), questioned whether the priority for the Health Ministry lies in the needs of the people or who the minister is.
“Are our plans based on needs or who the minister is? Twenty years ago, there were suggestions for Muar Hospital to have a specialist unit, and that plan was immediately put into action to become Sultanah Fatimah Specialist Hospital (located at Jalan Salleh, Taman Utama Satu, Muar),” Tan said.
He also claimed that due to the change of health minister from former Bakri MP Datuk Chua Jui Meng to Tan Sri Dr Chua Soi Lek, whose hometown is in Batu Pahat, provisions for Muar Hospital under the Bakri area were given to Batu Pahat Hospital instead.
“If the Batu Pahat area has urgent needs, then action should be taken there. However, Muar Hospital requires immediate attention for improvement right now.
“No plan was put into action after that suggestion made 20 years ago. Whenever I visit Muar Hospital, it takes me one hour to find parking for my car. This clearly wastes the time of hospital visitors.
“Selayang Hospital, on the other hand, showed a good initiative to provide five parking towers, where 12 cars can be parked vertically. This means 60 cars can be accommodated in the same land,” Tan said.
He called on the Health Ministry to free up the parking space allocated for hospital staff and allocate those spaces to the public instead.
“While hospital staff park their vehicles for long hours, hospital visitors park for up to around two hours only, which is a lot shorter in comparison.
“A shuttle bus service should be provided so that hospital staff could park their vehicles in nearby places and go to work more efficiently.
“In the short term, this can reduce public complaints regarding the lack of parking space at Muar Hospital,” he added.
Tan also said Muar Hospital requires at least a total of 10 ambulance units, as it currently has five ambulances and only three of them are operating properly. The other two ambulances are said to require regular repairs.
“We need to understand that Muar Hospital not only caters to the needs around the Muar district, but it is also a cluster hospital that has to treat patients from other districts in north Johor,” he said. – October 19, 2023