KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 — A woman has been arrested after allegedly defrauding patients and their family members at Sultanah Aminah Johor Bahru Hospital (HSAJB) by charging them an RM30 “fee” for ward admission.
A person complained on Threads about how her mother had to pay a woman sitting at a desk, presumably in the waiting area of the government hospital, RM30 for ward admission for the complainant’s father yesterday.
“The management of Sultanah Aminah Hospital (HSAJB) would like to emphasise that the individual mentioned in the post is not a hospital staff member, and the matter is currently under police investigation,” posted HSAJB in reply to the complainant.
“The public is advised to remain vigilant and to only make any deposit payments at authorised payment counters, ensuring that an official receipt is issued, in order to avoid becoming victims of fraud by parties attempting to take advantage.”
The hospital based in the Johor state capital added that the suspect has been arrested and taken to a police station for further investigations.
Some people commenting on the Threads post questioned how a member of the public could sit at a desk beneath a screen showing queue numbers and impersonate a hospital staff member.
“How can a non-staff member sit there?” one posted. “It looks like there wasn’t any supervision from the hospital administration until an outsider could pretend to be a registration counter person and even took advantage by collecting money that she shouldn’t have from caregivers. This is so dangerous.”
A photo shared by the complainant showed the accused scammer looking at her phone while sitting at a desk in a public area with other people, with signs above the desk saying: “Ambil nombor di sini” (Take queue numbers here) and “Pendaftaran dan bayaran bil” (Registration and bill payment). There was even a jacket on top of her chair.
It’s unknown how long the woman had been operating her con openly at HSAJB, prior to yesterday’s complaint, or how much money she had collected from unsuspecting patients and their next-of-kin.
In 2024, a 14-year-old girl allegedly pretended to be a doctor at Sultan Idris Shah Serdang Hospital (HSIS) in Selangor and entered an operating theatre at the government hospital.
Earlier this month, a 28-year-old female administrative assistant at Tunku Azizah Hospital (HTA) in Kuala Lumpur was accused of conning about 190 housemen in the paediatric department out of more than RM47,000 since September 2023.
HTA has since sacked the contract MyStep staff and filed a police report, but didn’t say if the suspect was arrested.
HSAJB, HSIS, and HTA are all Ministry of Health (MOH) hospitals.
