Malaysiakini :: Letters
Malaysiakini :: Letters |
| Dumping at Penang Hospital: There's more Posted: 14 Jun 2011 10:23 PM PDT Is the recent dumping of unused medical items at the Penang Hospital just the tip of the iceberg to a much bigger problem of lack of supervision over procurement, use and disposal in government hospitals? What society needs, and what consumers deserve is proactive action on the part of the government, namely the Ministry of Health, to ensure a proper monitoring system over all dealings of hospital with suppliers. It is not prudent spending for hospitals to waste taxpayers' money to buy medical items in quantities or of types that they do not need, and then to simply discard them. Many questions arise over the Penang Hospital incident where damaged cardboard boxes of unused medical and laboratory items worth thousands of ringgit were found scattered at the officers' quarters. Only a few could still be used as most of the products had expired. The dumping may have its cause in poor control over either the procurement leading to oversupply, or the disposal leading to indiscriminate dumping. The hospital authority should take responsibility over what occurred, and follow this up with a thorough investigation. The hospital director's admission that unused medical items were being kept at the quarters temporarily, while cleaning and maintenance works were carried out on the store, speaks of an apparent lack of accountability. The Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) is concerned over the procurement and disposal practices in government hospitals – and even in private hospitals - in view of the dangers these clinical wastes may pose. There are about 150 government hospitals in Malaysia, and the hospital waste management – from unused and used medical items - has drawn the concern of the authorities and the public. Regulations for the management of medical or clinical wastes were implemented in 1993, namely: the Policy on Hospital Waste Management; Guidelines for the Management of Clinical and Related Wastes in Hospitals and Health Care Establishments; and the Action Plan for Waste Management in Hospitals and Health Care Establishments. Prior to that, waste management practices differed among hospitals and the wastes were not clearly categorised nor correctly discarded. There was also little awareness then on how to properly manage hospital wastes among the healthcare workers. The government privatised the management of clinical wastes in 1997, outsourcing the task to three private consortiums to manage the clinical or medical wastes in the government hospitals for a concession period of 15 years. There is now a large amount of clinical wastes generated– and the volume keeps increasing year to year – giving rise to much concern. Among the root causes are overbuying, overuse, increased demand for supplies in the face of infectious diseases and the ageing population in Malaysia, the widespread use of disposable clinical instruments and hygiene items, and shoddy internal and independent audit of hospital procurement. The concessionaires are responsible for the collection, transport and eventual disposal of wastes but the management of waste at source remains with the hospital authorities. In 2009, the three concessionaires managed almost 16,000 tons of discarded needles and syringes, gauzes, gloves, plasters, medicines, scalpels, discarded surgical instruments, contaminated bandages, and other wastes – which was three times the total load generated in 2000. Clinical wastes are expected to grow at an average rate of 12.8 percent annually, and will reach 32,891 tonnes by 2020; this volume is considerably greater than the 18,000 tonnes per year capacity of the current incinerator infrastructure. The Consumers Association of Penang therefore calls for the government, particularly the Ministry of Health, to reduce wastage and wastes in government hospital as follows: 1. Minimise wastes at source a. Proper documentation of supplies and making purchases according to need. 2. Accountability 3. Relationship between hospital and equipment/drug industry a. There must be transparency in the relationship between doctors and industry to prevent any real or perceived influence over the purchases. 4. Prudent behaviour a. Scrutiny and effective cost comparison to ensure hospitals do not pay twice as much for dressings, medications, and other medical supplies. It is important for hospitals to get value for money spent and keep away from wasteful procurement of any sort. The hospitals should draw on the expertise of government advisers if need be to manage the procurement, use and disposal of medical supplies wisely. CAP calls for more efficient procurement practices and waste disposals at the various government hospitals, in accordance with the Ministry guidelines. We call on the government to have proper auditing and accountability to prevent incidences of overpayment for products, overbuying, and mismanagement of wastes within the hospital grounds. Transparency and accountability measures must be used to hold hospital administrators accountable. The writer is president of the Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Time to shut down Johor's Saleng Zoo Posted: 14 Jun 2011 10:13 PM PDT The Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (Mycat), comprising the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) – Malaysia Programme and WWF-Malaysia, commends the Department of Wildlife and National Parks Peninsular Malaysia (Perhilitan) on their decision to not renew the operating permit of Saleng Zoo in Johor. Over the years, the zoo has been in the spotlight for various run-ins with the law and has been the subject of many public complaints. The most shocking find by Perhilitan was the 21 dead tiger cubs in its freezer in 2008. Among the zoo's other previous offences is possession of wildlife without permits including a baby elephant, two slow lorises, a Tomistoma and a number of pythons and storks which were seized by Perhilitan in various raids. The zoo owner also claimed in an interview in December 2008 that Perhilitan has seized more than 20 animals from his zoo in the past six to seven years. It has been known to rent its tiger cubs for appearances and 'roadshows' - a violation of the law in which the wildlife permit is attached to the animal at the stated premise only, which means that it cannot be taken from one place to another. In terms of evidence, these compounding offences alone give Perhilitan enough reasons to shut down Saleng Zoo. We request that Perhilitan disclose records of Saleng Zoo's past cases that have been settled and compounded, pending cases especially the case of the dead tiger cubs, and other offences such as the breeding and hybridisation of protected wildlife. MYCAT urges Natural Resources and Environment Minister Douglas Uggah Embas to boldly pursue zoos that repeatedly flout our laws and ensure that the owners are never granted a special permit again. MYCAT calls upon the public to support current efforts to evaluate zoos, and demand strong action against errant zoos. This is the time for members of the public, who had asked for better protection for captive animals, to walk the talk and make your voice heard. We need to make sure that these establishments are closed, and will remain closed, as too many chances have been given in the past, with the only result being that the offender repeatedly violates wildlife laws time and again. We also call upon the media to cease publicising Saleng and other zoos which are known offenders. With the passing of the strengthened Wildlife Conservation Act 2010, Malaysians have a real chance to clean up our act in an organised and legal way to deal with all the problems local zoos face today that has given Malaysia a bad name. The law is in place. Perhilitan has shown that it wants to say 'Enough'. The public demand for better zoos is there. Our wildlife should not be suffering at the hands of errant zoos, poachers, illegal traders. Let us instead support Perhilitan's efforts to protect our wildlife and show no mercy to repeat offenders. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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