Saturday May 17, 2008
A place to rest for hospital visitors
By AHMAD YUSRI YUSOFF
THE three-year-old Balai Pelawat or hostel for visitors at the Penang Hospital has helped ease the financial burden of lower-income group families as they wait for relatives warded at the hospital.
Hospital director Dr Juita Ghazalie said since the hostel was opened in October 2005, the patients’ families no longer had to wait along the corridors, under the stairs or at the hospital surau (prayer room).
She said the 44-bedded hostel, which was converted and refurbished from the hospital’s former dental hostel, was also home to cancer patients whenever they needed to undergo radiotherapy.
“Previously, these patients have to bunk at relatives’ houses or stay at hotels. The hostel service has helped ease the financial burden of these families as they do not have to stay at hotels, which are located far away from the hospital,” she said.
Clean sheet: A worker making up a bed in the hostel. She was speaking at s special ceremony held in appreciation of the Penang Council of Datuks who had earlier raised RM150,000 for the refurbishment of the hostel on the initiative of its former president Datuk Nazir Ariff.
The hostel, located within the hospital compound, is believed to be the first of its kind in the country.
Juita also said visitors were allowed to sleep at the hostel as long as they had relatives warded at the hospital.
The council’s projects sub-committee chairman Datuk Saleena Yahaya said the hostel project was catered to the needs of those who needed accommodation so as to be close to their hospitalised loved ones.
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