KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 — Selayang MP William Leong pleaded with the Ministry of Health (MOH) today to resolve serious issues affecting Selayang Hospital where he said overcrowding and faulty facilities were preventing patients from getting urgent care.

The PKR lawmaker said the emergency department in the hospital was so overrun that a patient experiencing a heart attack did not get to see a doctor for hours and had to leave to seek treatment elsewhere to avoid fatal complications.

"Recently a member of the Selayang municipal council had a heart attack at 4am in the morning and was sent to Selayang hospital for treatment in the emergency ward. At 8pm he had yet to get a bed because the emergency ward was too packed.

"This person couldn’t wait any longer and was rushed to another hospital where he got an operation immediately. The second issue is the lifts are not working and until today it’s not repaired, and the third issue is there isn’t enough parking.

"Despite the parking issue, the hospital has privatised its parking so the public are having to pay parking fees that are higher than the medicine fees. I hope MOH can pay attention to his severe issue,” Leong said during the tabling of the 12th Malaysia Plan Mid-Term Review in Parliament today.

Selayang Hospital has been experiencing a myriad of problems from staff shortages to system failures and poor digital systems.

Back in February, Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa conceded to issues with the hospital’s digital systems but said this a problem that was inherited from previous administrations, before vowing to address them.