Trauma & Emergency Unit - UMMC

I went to fetch my mother and sister from LCCT yesterday. After having our lunch at the coffeshop, we went straight to Trauma/Emergency Unit at University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC). When we approached the counter, there was a doctor on duty, presumably a houseman kept asking questions as though my mom was not serious enough to get emergency treatment. We insisted and the clerk got my mom registered, we paid RM20 as registration fee.

We were attended by a doctor after waiting for 1 1/2 hrs. The doctor and nurses there were very friendly but I could see that they had serious shortage of nurses as the doctor attended to my mom had to handle everything all by herself such as withdrawal of blood samples, getting ready required tools for examination, etc. My mom was asked to lie on the bed for examination and was asked many questions which we had to be the interpreter as my mom understood only Cantonese but nothing else. The doctor instructed that a x-ray be taken and I paid RM30 for the scanning at the Payment Counter. The doctor then said my mom must be put on the observation ward for further observation before the blood test and x-ray result were ready. She also commented that the tumour in her colon was as huge as a fist and immediate attention was necessary in my mom's case.

We waited for roughly two hours before we were admitted to the observation ward. Then, the nurse put my mom on IV drip. Two doctors from the emergency unit came and did a brief check and decided to refer to Gynae Unit as the tumour was coming from between the colon and right ovary. We waited for 2 hrs but no sign of anyone from the unit came. I then enquired at the counter and only to find out that my mom was now referred to the surgical unit as appointment with the Gynae was fully booked until a week later. The doctor from that unit came and did a check on my mom and concluded admission to the surgical unit.

We arrived at the emergency unit around 3.20pm and by the time my mom did all required tests to finally admitted took a total of 9 hrs, not too bad considering the heavy patient load at UMMC.

To be continued....