BY LOH FOON FONG
PUTRAJAYA: More than 5,000 Health Ministry staff were affected by the recent massive floods in the east coast states with losses to health facilities estimated at RM387mil.
Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam said some of the staff's houses were swept away or inundated and most of their belongings were destroyed.
“Some of them moved to evacuation centres while others stayed with relatives.
“Despite our predicament, we still have to continue providing services to the people,” he said when launching a fund for the affected employees.
Dr Subramaniam started the fund rolling with a donation of RM10,000. His deputy, Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya, contributed RM7,000.
The floods, which started on Dec 26, were the worst in recent history to have hit the east coast and Perak.
Dr Subramaniam said the ministry could not contact 60% of its staff at the peak of the floods in Kelantan due to communication and transport breakdown. Many were trapped in hospitals or clinics.
He thanked the staff who worked relentlessly to care for patients and also saved millions of ringgit worth of equipment and medicine from being destroyed.
He said the staff worked in a spirit of togetherness, including specialists who turned up in shorts and boots to clean clinics and hospitals.
So far, he said, 15 community clinics were destroyed while four hospitals, 108 clinics and one health office were badly damaged. Losses were estimated at RM387mil.
Dr Subramaniam said the number of confirmed leptospirosis and melioidosis infections – reported to be 126 and 20 respectively from Jan 1 to 22 – was still worrying.
In view of the cost-cutting measures that the Prime Minister announced recently, the ministry had to reduce its operations expenditure by about RM500,000, he said.
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