Dr Sim: Thrombectomy for acute stroke patients available at SGH soon

KUCHING (July 9): Thrombectomy, a medical procedure to treat acute stroke caused by blood clots, will soon be accessible for patients at Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) here, says Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Dr Sim Kui Hian.

He said Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg had given the green light for thrombectomy services to start at the public hospital, which receives around 1,000 stroke patients annually.

“Our Premier has approved for the service to start at SGH by training more interventional radiologists and to allocate funds to purchase catheters and other relevant items.

“This is to enable our specialists to carry out the procedure, where about 500 patients out of the 1,000 stroke patients at SGH will be able to benefit from this service each year,” he told a press conference after delivering a keynote address at the 8th Asia Pacific Conference on Public Health (APCPH) here today.

Thrombectomy is used to treat strokes caused by blood clots, specifically ischemic strokes, which occur when a blood clot blocks an artery supplying blood to the brain.

The procedure involves the mechanical removal of the clots to restore blood flow.

Dr Sim, who is also Public Health, Housing and Local Government Minister, said thrombectomy services are not easily accessible in the state at present.

“The medical equipment such as CT scan, MRI and catheters are available, but for manpower we only have one (interventional radiologist).

“We need another three to be trained with each training costing about RM100,000 whereas the procedure, which requires the use of a catheter, would need an estimated funding of RM3.5 million a year,” he said.

He said he would be writing to the federal government to seek permission for Sarawak to provide funds for thrombectomy services to commence here.

“I’m very sure they will agree because it’s a very important service for us to have,” he added.

On the setting-up of satellite heart centres in other divisions in Sarawak, Dr Sim said he had sought for permission from Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad for the state to provide funding to upgrade facilities at Bintulu Hospital.

“I have written to the Health Minister so that if we spend a few more millions to upgrade the facilities at Bintulu Hospital, we can straight away set up a satellite heart centre at the hospital.

“We will raise the funds through the Sarawak Heart Foundation (SHF) and I’ve also spoken to our Premier, who is the new SHF chairman, on purchasing the necessary equipment to upgrade the hospital so that they can immediately provide cardiac service,” he said.

He also said that SHF will be upgrading the cardiac MRI at Sibu Hospital.

“The cardiac MRI machine is in Singapore at the moment because the hospital needs to refurbish the MRI room. We are waiting for Sibu Hospital to complete the upgrading of the room so that the MRI with cardiac facilities can be set up at the hospital.”

On the proposed Sarawak Cancer Centre, Dr Sim said the Public Works Department (JKR) Sarawak has been selected to serve as the project manager.

“We’ve issued a letter to JKR Sarawak because we find that even though everyone has agreed for the construction of the centre, nothing seems to be happening.

“So someone has to be the project manager and with that, they can start appointing the consultant for the project,” he said.

Also attending the APCPH Sarawak Health director Dr Veronica Lugah, World Health Organisation (WHO) representative to Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam and Singapore Dr Rabindra Abeyasinghe, APCPH organising committee vice-chairman Dr Tahir Aris, and Opar assemblyman Billy Sujang.