Need for public transport service to Kuala Lumpur health clinic

KUALA LUMPUR: The unavailability of public transport to Kuala Lumpur Health Clinic, situated in Jalan Fletcher here, is causing anxiety among patients, particularly those in the lower and middle income bracket.
Patients lamented that the location of the clinic was rather isolated and also posed a safety risk as they had to walk about 400m from the nearest bus station at the National Heart Institute (IJN) to the health clinic.
Christine Lee, 56, who suffers from chronic joint pain and fully depends on public transport said she was disappointed that the clinic was not built near a public transport facility such as light rail transit (LRT), monorail or bus station.
"Those who are young and able may not face any problem but for an aged person like me, with my painful knees, it is tiring and difficult," she told Bernama.
Meanwhile, shop assistant Rohaya Shamsudin, 40, who suffers from a skin disease said she had to fork out more than RM20 each time she goes to the clinic for follow-up specialist treatment.
"I don't have a car, so from Kerinchi, I have to use two connecting LRT trains and then take a taxi," she said.
Housewife Siti Salmah Wahab, 54, who has high blood pressure depends on her husband to send her on his motorcycle to the clinic for routine medical examination.
"When it was at Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL), I used to take the monorail to Chow Kit station and then go on foot. But now I have to wait for my husband to send and fetch me as there is no train or bus to the clinic," she said.
K. Kannan, 60, opined that provision of public facilities such as health clinics should conveniently go together with public transport accessibility in consideration of lower income members of society.
"I hope a shuttle bus service would be provided as soon as possible, otherwise patients would feel financially burdened if they have to take a taxi whenever they need to go to the clinic for treatment," he said.
Kuala Lumpur Health Clinic built at a cost of RM50 million opened on April 3, 2017 to replace the outpatient department at HKL and ease congestion. It provides 12 types of health service including outpatient; dental; mother and child; specialist; rehabilitation; x-ray; laboratory; and pharmacy. — Bernama