Federal government must return full autonomy over healthcare to Sarawak, says Robert Lau

suppadmin | April 22, 2021

Senator Robert Lau stated his disappointment with the Ministry of Health’s action of sending obsolete and non working ventilators to Sibu is definitely not acceptable as it reflects very badly on how the Federal Ministry treat Sarawak.

He said the explanation why obsolete machines were sent instead of new ones is not credible. If it is so fragile, why bother sending at all? The ministry must investigate and give clear explanation. This is to clear the air as people in Sarawak feels shortchanged. This is necessary in order to regain trust in the system or else the suspicion is the Sarawak is being treated as second class Malaysian.

At the same time, Lau said the ministry should disclose how many ventilators have been purchased by them since the start of the pandemic and where are they being distributed. I wish to know how many new units were sent to Sarawak.

“Hospitals facilities in Sarawak in general and the Rajang Basin in particular are lacking in facilities. Sibu hospitals are running low in equipments and have to resort to borrowing from private hospitals.

The pandemic has revealed the ugly truth of the serious lack of investments and the low priorities of the hospitals here as compare to Malaya.

As an example, 10 ventilators in Sibu hospitals before the pandemic times were already more than 10 years old and have been written off with zero value. This means they are obsolete and should not be repaired if broken and to be replaced with new ones. Sadly, yearly request for new replacements never come, ” he added.

He believed the only way for a fairer relationship between Sarawak and the Federal government is for full autonomy over healthcare be return to Sarawak and this must include the fair distribution of the budget provided to Sarawak in the annual budget to cater for the whole healthcare operation in Sarawak. I have raised and proposed this during my maiden speech and again during last year debate on the Supply Bill ( the federal Budget for 2021) in the Senate.

He said Sibu people have been very generous in donating equipments and many other items to Sibu Hospital over the last one year. Even the two units of pcr testing machines were donated by private companies. Sarawak Government has recently bought 3 new ventilators for Sibu Hospital and the private sectors has donated one to Sibu Hospital and one to Kapit Hospital.