Friday, March 11, 2011

VETERAN’S WARD LAUNCHED AT TENGKU MIZAN ARMED FORCES HOSPITAL

Yesterday March 10, 2011, I attended the official launching of the Veteran’s Ward at the Tengku Mizan Armed Forces Hospital by the Defence Minister YB Dato Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. Gathered at the launching ceremony were about 150 veterans of all ranks; the most senior among them were former CDF Gen Tan Sri Ghazali Seth and Gen Tans Sri Abd Rahman Hamid. I would have liked to see more senior veterans attend the occasion.

In the speech by the Defence Minister, he said that the idea to establish the Veteran’s Ward was mooted by Lt Kol Dato Kam Yoon Seng, a retired Royal Signals Corps officer who first made the proposal to the Veteran Affairs Department back in 2009. The proposal was immediately brought to the attention of the Defence Minister who approved it without much hesitation.

I have known Lt Kol Dato Kam from our days serving together at HQ 6 Brigade, Sg. Petani during the formative period back in 1969. And this idea having to come from him does not surprise me at all because Lt Kol Dato Kam is well known for his concern and wellbeing of his officers and men during his time in service. As a young Captain then, I have learnt one excellent trait from Lt Kol Dato Kam i.e. the art of being humble and patience.

Besides the Veteran’s Ward, the Defence Minister also proposed that a special pharmacy dispensing counter be establish for the veterans to minimize the waiting time for the collection of medicine. The long waiting time has been the general complaint among Veterans and this proposal is certainly welcomed by the Veterans.

It is inspiring to note that veterans are now being remembered and honoured with a special ward at the hospital, should they at any point in time require the medical services of the Armed Forces. A similar facility is also being planned at the two other Armed Forces Hospitals i.e. at Terendak and Lumut.

What is most comforting is that the wards are all located at the ground floor and this allows easy and shorter access to would be patients to the wards, as well as to ease visiting family members. For this, I congratulate the hospital administrators for having such consideration and thought.

I observed that most veterans that were at the launching ceremony are in their 60’s; and at this age physical fitness in them have long pass. Some may be the ‘gang-ho’ commandoes once before, but at that age one cannot pretend that they are ‘gang-go’ anymore.

In his final remark, the Defence Minister appealed to all veterans to utilize the medical facilities and services available at the hospital, as this is the government way of showering gratitude and appreciation to the veterans for their service and loyalty to the nation.

CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION

13 comments:

benadam said...

Dear Dato’
Thank you for the postings. I was not there and thus not privy to what was said in the Minister’s speech. My hope is that the establishment of the veteran’s ward will ensure the availability of quality and timely health care to veterans and those with special health care needs.
Certainly we do owe our heartfelt gartitude to Dato’ Martin Kam who mooted the idea and yes Dato' what a humble and patience soul he is. Have known him for the past 44 years and never once heard him raised his voice but to hear him saying in that soft an melodious tenor of his.

maurice said...

I would like to suggest to the Defence Minister the amenities of the Armed Forces Libraries be extended to all Veterans as well.Such facility will enrich the minds of the retired group.It will also slowed down the degenaration of the brain cells!

Kamal Sanusi said...

Dear Dato'

It is a great news to know that there is a special ward for those unsung heroes in the Armed Forces Hospital.

Indirectly, those ex-servicemen are being given recognition and the welfare after such a grueling time during those days is started to be given attention.

I would suggest the said special ward could be extend to other general hospitals in Malaysia. No need to be big (few beds will do) but rather the service given by the hospital personnel to be more personalized. No doubt there are special attention given to senior citizen but a little bit more extra would be ok in the name of their JASA namely those LLP in making our country as what we are having now.

Who are they to go to private hospital.

Thank you.

Mej. A R Ramachandran (Retired) said...

I don't see the point. Military Hospitals can treat veterans and in service personnel alike. I have no qualms about that. I have however issues with general hospitals, klinik kesihatans and the like. I hope we have special wards/services in these facilities. Don't you think that this is the way for the civvies to thank us? BTW what happened to the veteran's retirement homes?

maurice said...

I agree with Mej Ramachandran it is not necessary to have separate ward for veterans at Tengku Mizan AF Hospitals.If I were to be hospitalized as a veteran I would like to be in a General Ward with patients of different age group and varrying background.The possibility of creating a depressive environment in the Veteran Ward is there since these patients are old and less energetic.

Taking care of the old needs a well trained nursing staff who have empathy, sympathy and caring attitude towards the old retirees.The planners need to make available such trained nursing staff with the right aptitudes to make the Veteran Ward a facility to be yearned by all retirees.

Mej. Dr. Nor Ibrahim bin Sulaiman PTU TUDM (B) said...

Dear Dato',

It's a real pity that military hospitals are available in KL, Terendak & Lumut only. Those outside these areas will find it a little bit inconvenient because of the distance given the age we are now.

Yes, Dato' Martin Kam is a gentleman indeed. He was the Signal Instructor & my Company Officer (Abdul Rahman)during my cadet days way back in 1967. Unlike certain Instructors (officers) who simply loved to shout at the cadets, Dato' never once raised his voice.

udingaik said...

Salam Dato,

I am all for giving the Veterans the best facilities and comfort at TMAFH, and for that matter all hospitals. but not at the expense of undue extra management, manpower, logistics efforts, costs, and operating budget of the establishment. Facilitating visitors of the veterans' patients should not be considered as a logical criteria for seperating veteran patients and the sick serving personnels. There are invaluable social, psychological and practical advantages of accomodating all the patients togather in the same ward (depending on their medical problems), especially in our military hospitals.

I believe patients in hospitals should only be placed in seperate wards due to the seriousness of their medical problems, unless the AF has lavish budgets and manpower to man and maintain seperate/ different wards.

Whatever, do carry out a feasibility study on the necessity of wards seperation before implementing it. I am honoured, as a veteran, to be given some special privileges but when I get sick what I need most is good proper treatment, care, company to talk to and environment. I dont want to be alone.

udingaik said...

Salam Dato,

I am all for giving the Veterans the best facilities and comfort at TMAFH, and for that matter all hospitals. but not at the expense of undue extra management, manpower, logistics efforts, costs, and operating budget of the establishment. Facilitating visitors of the veterans' patients should not be considered as a logical criteria for seperating veteran patients and the sick serving personnels. There are invaluable social, psychological and practical advantages of accomodating all the patients togather in the same ward (depending on their medical problems), especially in our military hospitals.

I believe patients in hospitals should only be placed in seperate wards due to the seriousness of their medical problems, unless the AF has lavish budgets and manpower to man and maintain seperate/ different wards.

Whatever, do carry out a feasibility study on the necessity of wards seperation before implementing it. I am honoured, as a veteran, to be given some special privileges but when I get sick what I need most is good proper treatment, care, company to talk to and environment. I dont want to be alone.

Unknown said...

You have hit the nail on the head Pak Udin.
I agree fully that there should not be separate wards for veterans. What is the point?
All patients, be they serving members, dependents or veterans should be treated in the same wards.
Whose idea was this anyway? Surely not the DMS or Veterans Dept!
We should cut our cloth to suit our body-lah, not our ego.
Everyone can see that the biggest challenge facing the hospital today is inadequate manning; do we want this situation to worsen?
To my mind, Mindef should improve the manning situation first... then it can go ahead with the Vets ward or whatever.
Furthermore, a proper Veterans ward require special staff with specialised skills and equip which we all know too well that Tuanku Mizan Hosp does not have yet.
So why the hurry?
The fiasco does look like another one of those 'half cocked' decision that the MAF is famous for....

QEPANUKOT said...

Salam
My father is ex UCIS risik gempur. I am very interested of any unit in army, but very modest info I get about UCIS. Hope u can help me to improve my information.

UCIS is regular army or commando?

QEPANUKOT said...

Salam

dear dato,
My father is ex UCIS risik gempur. I am very interested of any unit in army, but very modest info I get about UCIS. Hope u can help me to improve my information.

UCIS is regular army or commando?

QEPANUKOT said...

Salam
My father is ex UCIS risik gempur. I am very interested of any unit in army, but very modest info I get about UCIS. Hope u can help me to improve my information.
UCIS is regular army or commando?

Mohd Arshad Raji said...

Dear Qepanukot,

Glad to know that your dad was with the UCIS. Want to knwo more about the unit, just call me at 012-3876061