KUCHING, Feb 20: The Sri Aman Hospital successfully performed its first cleft lip surgery last Friday (Feb 17).
The surgery was led by Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) plastic surgeon Dr Ragnild Redit with cooperation from the anesthesiology team and Sri Aman Hospital Operating Theatre.
This information was made public by the Sri Aman Hospital through a Facebook post on Feb 18, 6.04pm.
Following this, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah congratulated the hospital for their achievement on Twitter yesterday.
This had also drawn the attention of Sarawak Deputy Premier Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian, who thanked Noor Hisham and the Ministry of Health (MOH) for their continuous support and understanding of the aspirations of Sarawak, as well as congratulating Dr Ragnild and his team on the surgery.
“It showed with appropriate hospital facilities and the medical staff’s commitment, a congenital cleft palate can even be operated on successfully at the new Sri Aman Hospital.
“Sarawakians for too long had been suffering and disadvantaged by distances when it comes to medical treatment not just within Sarawak but also within Malaysia,” he said in a Facebook post today.
Dr Sim, who is also the Sarawak Minister of Public Health, Housing and Local Government, further mentioned that he had brought said topic up during his time as a senator in Parliament as well as during his meeting with MOH that the ministry’s standard (policy) in terms of services and facilities, based on population, is not suitable for Sarawak as distance should be taken into consideration.
“Our Pan Borneo highway is almost the same distance as the North-South Highway in West Malaysia. So imagine if, unfortunately, you have a motor car accident; we only have specialists for trauma, orthopaedic, plastic, facial-maxillary, ENT (ear, nose, and throat), and so on in Kuching, whereas, in West Malaysia, you have specialists and the necessary medical equipment in Johor Bahru, Malacca, Seremban, Klang, Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Penang, and Alor Setar.
“This is one of the reasons for (the return of) Sarawak’s health autonomy with the federal government continuing to fund as per constitution so that we can run the healthcare service ourselves and help the federal government (to lift) the headache of different operational norms within one healthcare system. So let us solve your headache and the worries of double standards for Kuala Lumpur.
“Now (that) political decisions by Prime Minister Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim and the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) committee had been agreed in principle, we need our officers in civil service to facilitate the smooth transition,” he added. — DayakDaily
