KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 — Pending state assemblywoman Violet Yong has come under fire from government doctors for claiming that a patient waited for nearly 20 hours at the Sarawak Heart Centre (PJS) without being seen by a cardiologist.
The DAP state lawmaker posted last March 29 a screenshot of a text message from the woman timestamped at 7.37pm, without disclosing her identity, that the latter’s husband was informed by the emergency department that he needed to wait until Wednesday due to weekends and public holidays, after arriving at PJS by ambulance at 1am that day. He had been referred to PJS from Borneo Medical Centre (BMC), a private hospital.
In her Facebook post, Yong directed her ire at Sarawak Deputy Premier Prof Dr Sim Kui Hian, the state minister for public health, housing and local government who is also a cardiologist.
The Sarawak state health department (JKNS) – which is under the federal Ministry of Health (MOH), not state government – denied Yong’s claims.
In a statement Wednesday, JKNS said the patient arrived at PJS’ emergency department on March 29 at 1am and was examined by an emergency medical officer 10 minutes later. He was subsequently referred to a cardiology medical officer who was then treating another patient in critical condition.
At 4.33am, the man was admitted into a special ward after a discussion between the cardiology medical officer and an on-call cardiologist. At 9.30am, the patient was examined again by the cardiologist together with the medical officer during morning ward rounds.
“In line with that, the allegation that there were no cardiologists on duty at the Sarawak Heart Centre throughout the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration, causing the patient to wait long for treatment, is not true,” said JKNS.
JKNS also denied Yong’s claim that a group of doctors only went to see the patient at PJS after “complaints through various channels.”
Yong has limited comments on some of her posts, after heavy criticism from multiple medical officers and specialists in the MOH outside PJS. The Sarawak DAP organising secretary did not publicly respond to JKNS’ statement.
A government doctor castigated Yong for making “baseless accusations without even taking the time to investigate.”
“Health care workers are already drowning under relentless pressure. We fight through resource limitations, staff shortages, and an overwhelming patient load—but we still show up and do our absolute best. So if you don’t feel like fighting for us, fine. But don’t make it worse by spreading lies and ruining the credibility of an entire system that is keeping this country’s health care afloat,” said the doctor in a Facebook post that received more than 700 shares.
“So the next time you think about sharing something ask yourself: Is it true? Is it fair? Or are you just fuelling the fire of falsehood.”
Another doctor pointed out that the reason why doctors in the public health service don’t frequently review patients at night is because they see multiple patients, hence their attention is focused on critical cases.
“If you see doctors attending you at wee hours when most of the patients are sleeping, likely they are trying to get you back from the way you are going to see God. You should be grateful that the on-call doctor is not always paying attention on you,” she wrote.
A surgeon in the MOH reported Yong’s Facebook page, saying: “She simply spreads defamatory statements and uses her power and influence to smear specialist doctors in government hospitals.”
Another surgeon in government service said “rubbish politicians” were among the reasons why health care workers have lost their motivation to work: “insufficient salary plus having to entertain the wishes of political dogs.”
“Some humans will call dogs like that politician if they don’t get private-style treatment in public hospitals, complaining a lot and hoping that only they can get treated by doctors as soon as possible. Pity the patients who don’t have YB’s contact – they have to wait for their turn like usual,” he said.
Another doctor said that in his personal experience of referring a case to the Sarawak Heart Centre, the government hospital would attend to the patient immediately, if not as soon as possible, especially acute coronary syndrome cases. “So it’s not fair to the doctors at PJHUS to be lambasted with such false accusations.”
In a Facebook post last March 30, Yong again slammed the Sarawak state government, attaching an op-ed about PJS having “full administrative autonomy.” PJS was formed as a separate facility in 2011 in Kota Samarahan from an expansion of Sarawak General Hospital’s cardiology department that was set up by Dr Sim and Dr Ong Tiong Kiam.
Despite PJS’ “administrative autonomy”, the hospital near the state capital of Kuching is still an MOH facility under the federal ministry.
A senior medical officer pointed out that as a lawyer, Yong should have verified facts before making accusations, saying that her failure to do so “disrespected the hardworking doctors and staff at Pusat Jantung Sarawak and misled the public.”
“Instead of recognising the severe manpower shortages in Malaysia’s public hospitals, YB Violet chose to attack doctors rather than push for meaningful reforms,” he wrote on Facebook. “Vote wisely, Sarawak. The future of our health care system depends on it.”
