KUCHING: Sarawak, as the only state government that provides healthcare, welcomes donations from individuals and corporations to assist the needy.
Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah, Minister of Women, Early Childhood, and Community Wellbeing, stated that the effort is critical to cover medical and health treatment costs that are prohibitively expensive and cannot be borne by patients.
“We are very lucky because the Sarawak government provides special provisions for patients, especially the B40 group, who need help to cover the cost of treatment.
“But at the same time, we welcome corporate bodies through corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes and individuals to also contribute to help them.
“The more assistance we receive, the more patients we can assist,” she said yesterday at a press conference following a courtesy visit from the Sarawak Hearing and Aural (Hear) Rehabilitation Association.
She stated that one of the allocations made by Sarawak is to assist individuals with hearing problems in obtaining cochlear implants.
According to the president of Hear Sarawak, Dr Tang Ing Ping, until now a total of seven cases of patients have successfully received implants as a result of the allocation given by the Sarawak government, namely Mervina Tadu Stanley, Nur Syafiyya, Dayang Irdina Awang Ahmad Tarmizi, Nur Azmya Aira Mohammad Azwan, Adley Matthew, Chong Hon Sin and Adelyn Allen Alang.
“Those who have had surgery are now starting to show very encouraging progress – responding well to sound, producing vocalisations and continuing to their scheduled follow-up appointments.
“They also had excellent speech recovery. The clinical report will be available soon,” he said.
Meanwhile, he stated that the courtesy visit was to fundraise for several more patients in need of rehabilitation assistance.
The association’s role is strictly speaking to support the hearing impaired who rely on oral communication as their primary mode of communication and to raise awareness of the group so that they can listen and communicate verbally.
For the record, the Sarawak government has allocated over RM 535,000 to Hear Sarawak to assist individuals with hearing problems, particularly those in the B40 group, in obtaining cochlear implants.
The allocation was used for treatment purposes and the purchase of equipment needed to improve hearing and speaking ability due to the high cost of treatment.
