JOHOR BARU: The Health Ministry come to the defence of Sultanah Aminah Hospital (HSA) on a claim that the hospital had delayed treatment and demanded upfront payment from the family of a 25-year-old Singaporean patient who was injured in a hit-and-run accident in Johor Baru.
In a statement by Malaysian Health Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, the ministry refuted a news report published in an online portal, The Independent (www.theindependent.sg), which claimed that the delay in treatment had led to the death of Justinian Tan, who was knocked over by a car in Jalan Abdullah Tahir, Johor Baru at 3am last Friday.
The statement mentioned that the online portal, which claimed that the deceased had sustained critical injuries following the accident but the authorities were slow to respond. It took up to 30 minutes for an ambulance from HSA to arrive at the scene.
"From the ambulance service records, it was noted that the emergency call was made at 2.57am on Aug 25 and ambulance left HSA at 2.59am.
"It arrived at the scene at 3.10am and departed from the scene with the patient at 3.15am. Kudos to the ambulance call services for a very timely response, with dispatch time of two minutes and response time of 13 minutes," Noor Hisham said.
He said allegations that payment was demanded of Tan's friends were baseless.
He explained that due to Tan's critical condition, he was placed in the Red Zone section upon arrival at the HSA emergency department.
"The emergency treatment as per the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) protocol was continued immediately, which was already initiated by the ambulance team earlier.
"As this was an emergency case, there was no requirement for any deposit in line with the ministry's 2015 policy to foreigners with regards to hospitalisation deposit payment at government hospitals."
Dr Noor Hisham also said that Tan was referred to a neurosurgery team at HSA and was rendered treatment and only when Tan's family arrived did the hospital ask for payment of imaging amounting to RM2,575.
"However the family members opted for discharge at on risk (AOR discharge) and arranged for admission to a hospital in Singapore after understanding the risk involved of further delaying the surgery," he added.
He added that the emergency department followed necessary medical protocol procedures such as imaging (primary survey X-rays, CT-scan of brain, cervical and thorax of the spine), treatment (including intubation) and referral to the relevant team were carried out in a very timely and professional manner.
Johor health, environment, education and information executive council commitee chairman Datuk Ayub Rahmat who is truly disappointed with the inaccurate news report, which has cast the state's health sector in a bad light, had called for the ministry to consider taking legal action against the foreign news portal.
Meanwhile, Johor traffic police chief Superintendant Dzulkhairi Mukhtar said police will soon be making an arrest in the hit-and-run case which killed Tan and injured one of his friend, Brandon Yeo.
The incident was reported to have happened around 3am last Friday when Tan and his friend Yeo, 24, along with four other friends had made their way from Singapore to Johor Baru for supper.
Dzulkhairi said the driver of the car, who had hit Tan and Yeo, lodged a police report on the following day.
A second police report was lodged by one of Tan's friends four days after the incident.
"Police will make an arrest soon. We will arrest the driver to facilitate investigations following the second report on the same incident.
"The victim's death in Singapore while being warded at a hospital over there has also been made known to the Johor police," he said.
The online portal had said that a car had ploughed into Tan and Yeo as they were walking to fetch their own car, after which the driver had apparently sped-off. Tan's other four friends were unhurt.
It was also reported that the Singaporeans had to wait for 30 minutes for an ambulance arrive and that there was a hefty sum that needed to be paid for Tan to be treated to remove a blood clot in his brain.