By Zareef Muzammil
KUALA SELANGOR, Feb 9 — The Sultan of Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah Alhaj has called on the Ministry of Health (MOH) to look at the needs of the state’s health facilities as a whole, especially when it comes to long waiting times in hospitals.
The Selangor Sultan said the state needs many state-of-the-art health facilities to accommodate the large population of more than seven million people.
His Royal Highness added that the people currently have to wait a long time at hospital Emergency Departments before being admitted to the ward due to the large number of patients at health centres.
“The waiting time for surgery and further treatment also takes months.
“Therefore, I request that the equipment of hospitals and health centres be prioritised, while the number of doctors and nurses should be increased,” he said in conjunction with the inauguration of Tanjong Karang Hospital, here today.
The Selangor Ruler said that health services in hospitals must have a good and efficient management system.
“This also leads to the maintenance of hospitals so that the equipment and infrastructure are always in good condition to provide high quality services to the people.
“For facility management, scheduled building maintenance and periodic monitoring can increase the lifespan of the hospital building in addition to providing continuous benefits to the local population,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sultan Sharafuddin today inaugurated the Tanjong Karang Hospital here which has been operating since October 10 last year.
His Royal Highness arrived with Tengku Permaisuri Selangor Tengku Permaisuri Norashikin at 11.30am for a tour of the hospital.
The Selangor Sultan said he was happy with the construction of the newest facility to make it easier for the surrounding residents to receive better and more effective access to medical services.
“This new hospital provides specialist medical services and makes it easier for patients to get specialist services than before as they previously had to rely on Sungai Buloh Hospital.
“I hope that with the completion of this hospital, it will be able to ease the burden of the people, especially in the Kuala Selangor district,” he said.
Sultan Sharafuddin added that the opening of the first operating room at the hospital involved could speed up the waiting time for patients to get critical surgery.
Also present were Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari, Selangor State Secretary Dato’ Haris Kasim and Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa.
The construction of Tanjong Karang Hospital was approved in 2013 under the 10th Malaysia Plan on 16.1 hectares of land at a cost of RM269 million.
This hospital with minor specialist status provides 10 specialist services in phases covering emergency medicine, general medicine, general surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics and orthopaedics.
Other specialist services such as anesthesiology, radiology, pathology, paediatric dentistry and oral surgery in addition to otorhinolaryngology, ophthalmology, psychiatry and forensic medicine.
The hospital is also combined with Sungai Buloh Hospital and Tengku Ampuan Jemaah Hospital, Sabak Bernam as the North Zone Selangor Cluster hospital.
