GEORGE TOWN: The state Health Department is conducting an internal probe on a Monday incident where a woman had to deliver her newborn in a car as she could not arrive at the hospital on time.
State Health Department director Dr Ma'arof Sudin said the investigation would be conducted immediately to improve the delivery of health and medical services to the people.
"The department would like to refer to the viral statement on social media regarding a baby being born inside a car after the mother received initial treatment at the Seberang Jaya Hospital (HSJ) on Dec 27.
"For the information, the HSJ confirmed that the mother had sought treatment at the hospital and examination found that she had signs of early birth. She was then allowed to go home upon the doctor's advice," he said today
Dr Ma'arof said the department held a meeting with the woman's next-of-kin today to get more information and decided to conduct an internal investigation.
Meanwhile, Dr Ma'arof urged the public or patients who had any questions, complaints or suggestions to contact the hospital directly so that investigations or improvements could be implemented immediately.
Social media was abuzz with news of a woman who delivered her baby inside the car as she could not arrive at the hospital on time.
The woman had initially gone to a government hospital because she was already showing signs of delivering the baby.
She, however, claimed that she was asked to go home first because it was still not time for her to give birth.
The woman then appealed to the hospital to allow her to be admitted to the ward as she is staying in Sungai Ara, Bayan Lepas which is quite far from the hospital, but her appeal was ignored.
Shortly after arriving home, the woman told her husband she had to be rushed to the hospital again at about 7pm due to 'bleeding'.
However, the travelling time to two government hospitals was between 50 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes at that time, due to peak hour traffic.
The woman eventually gave birth inside the car on her way to the hospital.
Her husband took her to a nearby private hospital and the man had expressed frustration at having to pay "unexpected" hospital bills and blamed the first hospital for asking his wife to go home.