KUCHING, Feb 17: Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii has demanded that serious action be taken on responsible parties after revelations by the Auditor-General’s (AG) report that 108 out of 136 (68 per cent) ventilators supplied by a company to public healthcare facilities under the Ministry of Health (MOH) during the Covid-19 pandemic period were unusable.
Dr Yii slammed that such “negligence” not only caused a waste of public funds but, more importantly, may have compromised the quality of patient care, which may have even caused the loss of lives.
According to the AG’s report, Pharmaniaga Logistic — a wholly-owned subsidiary of Malaysia’s leading pharmaceutical company Pharmaniaga Bhd — supplied only 28 usable ventilators or merely six per cent of the government’s order of 500 ventilators.
The 108 ventilators the company supplied to MOH facilities between 2020 and April 2022 were deemed unusable.
“This caused not only an estimated loss of RM13.07 million of precious funds but, more importantly, contributed directly to possible loss of lives that could have easily been avoided if healthcare workers had the required medical equipment during that critical period.
“We will never forget (that), especially during the peak wave of Covid-19, many hospitals around the country were struggling to keep patients alive amid shortages of staff, oxygen supply, and medication.
“Wards were full, while equipment like ventilators and oxygen canisters were insufficient. Some medical professionals were put in the impossible position to prioritise certain medical equipment, including ventilators for certain patients over the others, which have definitely affected the quality of care for other patients,” he said in a statement today.
In the same report, Dr Yii pointed out that it also entails that the government could not claim for the losses from the defective ventilators because there were no documents on the appointment of the procurement of ventilators between the company and MOH as the procurement was done under “emergency procurement protocols”.
“However, that begs the question that even though it was an ’emergency procurement’, why weren’t proper documents prepared and signed, especially when it involved millions of ringgit of public funds?
“Wouldn’t that have given better legal protection for MOH and the different parties that were involved against liability or incidents such as this?” he questioned.
With that, Dr Yii pressed that parties involved have to answer and be held accountable, and this matter must not be taken lightly or swept under the carpet. — DayakDaily
