KUCHING, March 28: Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) Political Education Bureau director Irene Chang is questioning whether the federal government is compromising the healthcare system in the State.
She said the poor state and lack of the medical equipment in Sarawak has existed since many years back and this situation has continued despite the life-threatening Covid-19 pandemic.
She asserted that the issue is not due to lack of awareness as many quarters have made statements on the lack of resources and manpower in local hospitals.
“Sarawakians have enough of being constantly slapped in the face as like the instance when during the height of the pandemic in Sarawak, our hospitals were ‘gifted’ with 10 units of ventilators, eight of which were not in working and functioning order.
“Even if they were still in working order, it was also a fact that the equipment delivered were of models with no built-in air compressor and which dated to as far back as 2004. And despite calls from several quarters, up until today, no one had been held accountable for the blunder,” she said in a statement today.
Chang who is also the former Bukit Assek assemblywoman further proposed Sarawak’s healthcare system be decentralise and for the State Health Department to be given the autonomy to address and resolve the lack of resources and manpower faced by the hospitals in the State.
She said that the previous Pakatan Harapan (PH) government had agreed in principle to decentralise some federal health matters to Sarawak in December 2019 but the plans fell apart due to a change of government.
“It was therefore very sad and tragic that Sarawakians would continue to be deprived of quality healthcare service just because politics got in the way.
“The lives of people will continue to be compromised for as long as political interest is placed above the people’s interest.
“The Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) government should therefore, for the sake of all Sarawakians, push aggressively for the decentralisation exercise which was started under the PH government to be continued in order to ensure that our people would be entitled to quality healthcare without any more delay,” she emphasised. — DayakDaily
