Headline: One-stop centre for chronically ill to seek funds

NST
Date : 09/03/2004
Page :15

Type: News

Byline : By Annie Freeda Cruez; R.S. Kamini

KUALA LUMPUR, Mon. - For public convenience and to expedite processing of applications from patients with chronic illnesses, the Ministry of Health today set up a one-stop centre for the National Health Welfare Fund.
Situated at Block D of the ministry, the centre will be headed by director of Medical Development Datuk Dr Abdul Gani Mohammed Din.
Health Minister Datuk Chua Jui Meng said the centre was set up to finetune the existing system.
"The public can now obtain all information pertaining to the fund from the centre instead of having to go to various departments and divisions in the ministry," he said after meeting three couples who claimed in a Malay daily recently that bureaucracy had delayed disbursement of funds for their children's liver transplants.
Chua, however, said the applications would be dealt with on a case by case basis, with priority given to urgent ones.
"I have directed that all applications be processed and approved quickly," he said, adding that applications from civil servants would be expedited to help them obtain medical loans from the Public Service Department.
He said details on procedures and eligible recipients may be obtained from the ministry's website.
"Feedback from parents with children suffering from chronic illnesses showed that many do not know how to go about getting loans from the fund."
Chua said his meeting with the parents of 15-month-old Aliff Hambali, one-year-old Nurnesa Uzma, and 14-year-old Muhammad Elmi Khuazairi was fruitful as he now knew how to improve the existing system to provide better services.
He also said that patients no longer needed to go to private hospitals for a liver transplant as it was now being done at Selayang Hospital.
A renowned Australian liver transplant specialist Prof Dr Russel Strong, Kuala Lumpur Hospital paediatric surgeon Datuk Dr Zakaria Zahari and hepatobiliary surgeons Dr Harjit Singh and Dr R. Krishnan have already started performing liver transplants at the hospital.
Dr Zakaria who was present at the Press conference said they had performed three liver transplants successfully and there were 17 more on the waiting list.
Asked whether the ministry would take action against a paediatrician at Kuala Lumpur Hospital who allegedly told parents whose children suffered from biliary atresia that they should let their children die as they could still give birth and to concentrate on their other healthy children, Chua
said: "I have directed the Director-General of Health Tan Sri Dr Mohamad Taha Arif to investigate and take appropriate action."

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