aNt's aNgle:
I came across this very interesting letter in Malaysiakini yesterday.
As a person who lives near the PPUM - and who goes there often - I can't but agree totally with the writer who describes himself only as Road 10.
A hospital should think and care chiefly about its patients who come there. More so when they are elderly or disabled.
Although there have been improvements with some security guards in the way they deal with patients who come in wheelchairs in their cars, I think there can be much more improvement.
If you are a wheelchair-user and drive yourself there, be prepared for some irritations. The security doesn't spot you at once.
Sometimes they appear as if they are blind - even though your car is plastered with disabled stickers.
Perhaps PPUM's administrators had told them that if they close their eyes, we will go away?
And yes, I agree with Road 10. If there was an emergency, I pray to God that I am not once of those people who will be rushing to the hospital.
Read on, folks. Let us know what you think.
PET+BLOGSPOT
Have you been to the Universiti Hospital recently? If you haven't, try it and join the jam and queue which stretches out to its traffic-light junction entrance at Jalan Universiti. And God help you if you have a loved one or friend with a smashed leg or heart attack. If you are indeed at that junction and stuck in the jam, you might just as well read out the last rites as there is a large likelihood of the patient going up to meeting God directly from that traffic junction itself. No way will you be able to approach its oddly built and placed Accidents and Emergency Unit (the signboard mysteriously mentions 'Trauma' but the building itself looks like a giant car park).
The Universiti Hospital, or now glamorously termed Universiti Malaya Medical Center, has an infrastructure and layout that is truly messed up. For those who are old enough to remember the early years of this hospital when even the Jalan Gasing/ Federal Highway intersection at EPF was nothing more then a traffic light junction instead of an interchange, this hospital used to be numero uno in its almost ergonomic layout for especially the general public and patients.
Whoever the original founders and designers were, they had paid great attention to detail and many a time all that we PJ residents had to do when there was an emergency was just drive up directly to its A&E Department located just after the traffic lights.
But like many things in Malaysia, with the passing of its old guard, the Universiti Hospital like almost every other institution in this country appears to be undergoing rather rapid or is it 'rabid' development? The chaos is truly astonishing. One has to be actually there to experience the utter traffic nightmare and mayhem as a result of what looks like very haphazard development taking place at the hospital grounds.
A massive so called Primary Care building or 'Ruka' has emerged out of nowhere blocking its initial main entrance and its original A&E. To compound matters, its A&E has moved to the main car-park which is quite a distance from its main tower building. As an engineer, I cannot for the life of me, understand how the new A&E was allowed to be built on its open car park space located hardly a few meters from the edge of Jalan Universiti.
Patients have to fight their way through traffic to reach its emergency unit. And after having done that, relatives will have to run around in circles looking for a parking space. If you are lost they will eventually direct you to this giant, dimly lit car park right above the A&E building which will truly test your driving skills as you try to negotiate its narrow lanes and super low ceilings.
But apparently there is worse to come. According to the security guards there, more towers or 'menara' are coming up with no one having any idea where the staff to manage them are going to come from or where the public car parks are going to be. Looking at the signboards and his story, it sounded like another 'submarine cannot dive 'or 'jets without engine' scam. But to be fair, the nursing standards at this hospital are still much better then one gets in a general hospital I suppose.
The vice-chancellor, who reportedly is a qualified engineer should turun padang to see the havoc himself and see how patients, especially the elderly, struggle daily because of the poor planning. The VC must identify who is responsible for this haphazard development of Malaysia's best known hospital. For residents in PJ, this is the only general hospital they know and even if they have to pay a small amount for treatment it doesn't matter because it used to be known for its quality care.
But now with all its roads choked and car parks unapproachable, patients literally risk dying getting to the hospital's door. A neighbor of mine was referred to the UH for a hormonal problem but after being unable to find a parking space for one hour, she skipped the hospital and kept driving all the way to Putrajaya where she was treated quite promptly.
If the VC or whoever is in charge of this hospital is not going to find a remedy for its traffic nightmare, the UMMC is going to end up a ghost hospital as patients will not be able to get there. In fact, this may already be happening as the A&E Department looks rather deserted for a hospital this size.
If Universiti Hospital doesn't solve its traffic and parking woes soon, all that building that is being carried out there using taxpayer's money is going to go to waste. The simultaneous rapid building rampage on almost every open space this hospital used to have is highly suspicious, especially if the 'no staff' story is true. I do hope someone is not making money from needless projects.
PET+BLOGSPOT is the official online blog of the Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association (Petpositive). Our contents are ACCURATE, RELIABLE and THE LATEST. We offer both local and foreign news on animals, disability and the elderly. PET+BLOGSPOT was first established in October 2007. Our hits since then is 45,000 hits and counting. PET+BLOGSPOT is updated daily. Kindly take note that views expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of PETPOSITIVE. You may also visit our Webpage by browsing: www.petpositive.com.my
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