What another issue about attire? Now, it’s the hospital!

 

 

By Stephen Ng

 

Just less than two weeks ago, a complainant had brought to light her problem with attire when she was not allowed to enter the District Police Headquarters to lodge a police report.

         Understandably, she had had an accident, and wanted to lodge the police report before settling down at home.

         Now, a young woman who was suffering from acute stomach pain was refused treatment at the emergency centre of the Kampar Hospital by a nurse, just because she was still wearing her pair of short pants when rushed to the hospital.

         Understandably, she was at a badminton game, and having sharp stomach pain, she could not have gone home to change to a proper attire before entering the hospital.

         I see this as a problem of lack of compassion for a sick patient, and where the nurse is concerned, she had no rights to refuse the young woman the medical treatment that she needed just because of her attire.

         Her attitude is deplorable and she, together with the hospital director, owes the family of the girl an apology. The public apology should also be made before the press.

Root Cause

         The other problem I see is the failure of both the ministry’s senior officers, in this case the ministry secretary-general and the director-general in dealing with similar complaints in the past.

This is probably not the only incident except that this has been brought into broad daylight so that improvement can be effected in the healthcare system.

Some heads should roll when issues like this and the bullying cases keep cropping up; instead, what we are hearing till today are complaints of a grand farewell dinner at the Putra World Trade Centre costing RM250/- per pax which medical personnel had to pay when their hospital director retired.

The Ministry should immediately put a stop to this; instead, address issues on the ground which directly affect the caregivers and the patients’ wellbeing.

         Allow me to elaborate. Recently, I went to a health clinic in my area. While walking up the stairs, the slipper on my left leg hit the front side of the next step, and I fell. I wrote to the Director-General of Health, Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah on January 27, 2023.

         While most people would not bother, I took the trouble to remind him again this morning of at least courtesy on his part to respond to my email.

Honestly, for a small like this, I did not even have to copy the Minister of Health but looking at the lack of response from someone as senior as Dr Noor Hisham himself, I decided that his minister should also be aware of the complaint.

In the event of any injury to any of the patients, the minister should know this is not the fault of the clinic staff who are similarly subjected to the poor facilities which have been there for the past eleven years.

I dread to think when there is an emergency evacuation, would anyone trip while trying to escape on the staircase. Do the senior members of the ministry care about what is happening on the ground?

Throughout his entire time serving as director-general at the Ministry of Health, I wonder how frequently Dr Noor Hisham has visited the hospitals and health clinics to find out about the welfare of the medical staff working round the clock to care for the patients.

A number of issues have cropped up now, because everyone finally saw some hope in problems being solved. Noor Hisham has a lot to explain why even in this case where there was an emergency, the young woman was denied entry into Kampar hospital.

I suppose, even if there is an accident, where someone is wearing a pair of shorts and singlet, the accident victim would have to go home to have his attire changed before being admitted into the hospital.

Good Leaders Are an Asset

It takes a good leader to go down to the ground and address the issue himself.

Noor Hisham should just go in his pair of shorts and wear a t-shirt to see if anyone dares to deny him entry into the hospital. After all, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was wearing only a pair of sandals, and from the day he became the country’s PMX, I have yet to see him wearing a tie which is hardly Asian at all.

Whatever the hospital’s Standard Operating Procedures, now that this issue has cropped up, both the hospital director and the director-general should be directly responsible for it. They should ensure that the staff are taught that, above all SOPs, the care of patients’ well-being should be top priority.

Attire should not even be the issue at all. It is not only Malaysians who are wearing shorts, sandals and t-shirts. While waiting for some friends at Corus Hotel, a four-star hotel in Jalan Ampang, I noticed a group of Japanese-speaking young people walking past me.

They were wearing t-shirts, some in their singlets, and most of them were walking in their sandals. What appears like a local young man was wearing a black singlet, a pair of short pants and walking in his slippers.

          No, none of them was blocked by the security guards to keep to the proper attire rules. The only indecency is only if one of them decides to take off his clothes and start walking around naked; otherwise, these young people have their own fashion attire.

 

(What do you think should be done to solve this problem about 'Proper Attire' which has kept cropping up. Please post your comments below. Thank you).