Sungai Buloh Hospital has recently come under fire from netizens for purportedly banning all food deliveries for staff and patients at the hospital.
The matter was made known by junior doctor rights movement Hartal Doktor Kontrak in a tweet on Wednesday (10 August) while attaching a photo of a circular from the hospital about the ban.
The circular was dated 9 August and it stated that the decision was reached during a meeting with all hospital department heads on 26 July. The circular also explained that the ban on online food deliveries was due to food waste that has “compromised” the cleanliness of hospital wards.
It added that the hospital has since been receiving several complaints of increasing food waste and litter, as well as pests on hospital grounds.
KKM logic, ban food delivery like #Grab & #Foodpanda for staff and patients. Might as well ban eating so that there will be no waste produced.
— HartalDoktorKontrak (@HKontrak) August 10, 2022
Yg buat keputusan dah lupa kot rasa tengah oncall & rasa lapar, sebab tu buat keputusan mcm ni. pic.twitter.com/rPCICu6p2e
Meanwhile, the hospital management reminded the hospital cafeteria to improve its services and preparation of food to meet the demands of staff and the general public.
The move has met with criticisms from the rights group and they slammed the management for being insensitive toward hospital staff who had to work around the clock and patients who many want to eat at off hours.
“This is Ministry of Health’s (KKM) logic, banning food delivery like Grab and foodpanda for staff and patients. Might as well ban eating so that there will be no waste produced,” the group wrote in the tweet.
“Those who made this decision have forgotten what it felt like to be hungry while on call, that’s why they have decided as such.”
This new policy has not been well received by netizens and many took to the comment section to criticise the hospital.
“Are they stupid or what? When doctors become hungry during on-call at night, who are they going to call? The director?” a netizen said.
Meanwhile, many also pointed out that the solution proposed does not even resolve the problem highlighted in the circular.
The director solution… oh there’s pest.. lets ban food delivery..LOL improve the rubbish and pest control la😏
— Ir_ Riaz🏴 (@riaz_ir) August 10, 2022
“This shows the failure of the hospital administration to handle the support service to maintain the hospital rubbish disposal and cleaning,” a netizen said.
Following the backlashes, it was reported that the hospital has reversed the decision on banning online food delivery services for patients and staff.
“The management of Hospital Sungai Buloh hereby withdraws all prohibitions stated in the memo dated 9 August with immediate effect,” hospital director Dr Kuldip Kaur Prem Singh said in a statement.
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