Baby snatching claim: Ministry conducting investigation - Dr Zaliha

KUALA LUMPUR - The Health Ministry will thoroughly investigate a 'baby snatching' case allegedly takes place at a hospital in Sabah recently.

Its minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa said such incidents should not happen in any public or private health facilities.

“I agree, such matters should not occur in hospitals, especially government hospitals. I think the ‘No Wrong Door Policy’ approach we implemented must be done well.

“I agree that this matter must be thoroughly looked through and a police report is being done, we will see what the results are.

“For the time being, I will make improvements and meet our officers in person to gain more information and make further improvements.

“We must have empathy when implementing healthcare-related tasks,” she said in Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday.

She said this when interrupted by Dr Kelvin Yii Lee Wuen (PH-Bandar Kuching) while wrapping up the debate for the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) Mid Term Review (MTR).

Dr Kelvin stood up to ask for the ministry’s views regarding the mother who was involved in a baby snatching due to allegedly not having documents.

He pointed out that the ministry must investigate transparently despite the hospital lodging a police report on the matter.

The Sabah State Health Department previously lodged a police report denying the claims of a baby snatching case at a hospital as what was reported by a news portal.

Sabah State Health director Dr Asits Sanna said immediate investigations were done following a news portal report titled ‘Baby snatching: How stateless mums lose their infants in Sabah hospital’.

He said the Sabah State Health Department found the claims were false and did not occur in any hospitals in Sabah. - AWANI