Press Statement By Chong Chieng Jen:
There are more than 300 private medical clinics in Sarawak, why only 42 are approved by the Government as vaccination centres to administer vaccination?
According to the latest Government statistic available, as at 2015, there were 328 private clinics in Sarawak. By now, conservatively, there will be approximately 350 private clinics in Sarawak. Out of this figure, less than 15% of the private clinics were approved to administer vaccination. That is extremely low participation from the private GPs in this largest national vaccination program.
Why is it so? Is it because of the government red-tape and bureaucracy that deter the private GPs from participating and contributing to this vaccination exercise?
On the Government side, as at 2019, there are in total 23 government hospital and 273 government clinics (including klinikkesihatan, klinikDesa and klinikKomuniti). Out of these total number of 300 government hospital and clinics, only 130 were identified to administer the vaccines.
It seems that the Government is inclined more to the set-up of mega PPV like the ones at the Kuching Indoor Stadium. There are problems with such mega PPVs, eg.over-crowding of people, increasing the chances of infection, over-work for the frontlinersat such Mega PPVs and the logistical issues of the people getting to these centres.
Yesterday, hundreds were made to queue under hot sun for hours before they could receive their vaccination.
According to my information, the Government has doubled the number of people to receive vaccination at the Indoor Stadium yesterday from the previous 2,000 to approximately 4,000. Though the long wait yesterday may be attributed to the power outage of the Indoor Stadium, but the crowding and longer-than-usual wait happened even on the day before when the targeted recipients were about 2,000 plus individuals.
As such, I call on the Government to give more incentives and encourage more private GP clinics to participate in the vaccination program, to fully capitalise the 273 government clinics throughout Sarawak as small-scale PPVs and set up more mobile teams for the rural areas.
15-6-2021
Chong Chieng Jen
DAP Sarawak Chairman
