KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - Deputy Federal Territories Minister Datuk M. Saravanan 'caught' two doctors at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital emergency department reading newspapers and doing their own stuff instead of attending to more than 20 patients who were waiting for treatment.

Saravanan made the shocking discovery at about 10.30am on Sunday when he went to the hospital to visit a university student who was injured after he was knocked down by a car driven by his (Saravanan's) driver.

'I, too, waited for a while for the girl to be treated and, realising that none of the patients were being called in by the doctors, I opened the door to the treatment room. I was shocked to find one doctor reading a newspaper and the other minding his own business and doing his own stuff.

'There were more than 20 patients outside waiting for treatment. This should not be the way doctors work. The patient should come first. Furthermore, it is an emergency unit, which is supposed to be fast in dispensing treatment,' the visibly irked Saravanan told Bernama.

The deputy minister said he reprimanded the doctors for their behaviour and demanded to see a superior who, he said, appeared after 30 minutes.

'After that, those waiting were promptly treated. Why couldn't the doctors attend to the patients first? This should not be the way service at government hospitals is dispensed,' he said.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, in one of his surprise visits to the city centre on Saturday, said he wanted frontline government establishments in the federal capital to improve their services to the people.

Saravanan said although he had caught the doctors by chance, he would make it a point from now on, to conduct surprise visits to departments under his ministry to ensure that frontline staff did their job of serving the people.

'This is an eye-opener. We, as leaders, just cannot afford to pay lip service and not check whether work is done by the frontline government servants. We have to go down (to the ground) to ensure that speedy solutions are found for the people's problems.

'What more in this case where people are in pain and are in agony due to the pain. If they were not suffering, they would not have come to the emergency unit. This is a lesson for all hospitals. Please work for the people if you are in the civil service,' he said.