H1N1, I am infected, Why MOH doesn’t care about me?

I have a friend who was unfortunately infected with H1N1 virus . The frightening issue is she need to wait frantically for two days just to get the assistance from Ministry of Health .

This friend of mine went to Singapore last week to attend an international forum. Participants came from all over the world including Mexico, Australia, Philippines.

When she returned to Malaysia by flight after the 2 days seminar, she found herself came down with the symptoms suspected of H1N1. She quickly went to Government Hospital requested for a H1N1 check up and was informed that result will only churn out in 48 hours . She was asked to wait at home , and the bad news was finally delivered to her that she has contracted H1N1 after 2 days. Though she was stunt and upset, she immediately offered to report to hospital for treatment and quarantine.

“Okay, I will drive to hospital now”

“No, No, No! you are not allowed to do so, please stay at home, we will send the ambulance to pick you up.”

And she waited nearly two days for the ambulance. This 2 days waiting was an unbearable and horrible experience. Being a H1N1 patient already makes one so helpless , she or he will expect the hospital to act immediately , not wondering whether she has been forgotten .

Since she was diagnosed with H1N1, she duly informed the hospital on the persons that had been in contact with her in Singapore. Phone numbers of these persons were passed to the health department for further action.

Again her friend has been waiting for days and nights, which sadly to mention till today no one has called them. Her friends merely wanted to know what to do next. Instead she made the initiative to call the hospital helpline, and more upsetting to find no one was picking the call.

I told her no need to complain or rather to hope to get help. As there was one lady who had undergone H1N1 test but had to call few times to find out the result. She was lucky or rather unlucky that somebody on the other end finally picked up the call and found out that she was H1N1 positive. I do not know whether will she get informed if she doesn’t call.

We deeply appreciated the effort undertaken by the Health Ministry to fight H1N1. However, if the medical officers do not perform their duty in more responsible manner , I wonder, will our country be able to win the war of H1N1?

Who really don’t care? Ministry put the blame on people do not alert. They claimed the people are not co-operative. They have forgotten there are the servant of the people in Malaysia.

I had once made a remark that Malaysia will be badly hit by H1N1 when I came back from a trip to Australia a month ago, as I found the way government’s attitude in dealing with the problem was rather RELAX (“ tidak apa” attitude ) .

Last month, when I was in one of the Hospital for an ECG heart test, I found there were many patients coughing in the public and no medical officer seemed to care about it. And the hospital also did not monitor the public body temperature , unlike our neighboring country Singapore where all visitors to the hospital had to go through temperature screening .

What if I say, the number of cases of H1N1 in Malaysia will reach 1000 in 2 weeks' time, would you think so?

Note : my friend was finally “TAKEN AWAY” by the ambulance after a long waiting. It was however within 48 hours.