Video Conference Becomes a Farce

By Annie Freeda Cruez

PUTRAJAYA: Fortunately, it was a trial run. A video conference between the health minister and the Terengganu state health director descended into a farce as the two were unable to communicate.

At one point, minister Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek told Dr Nordianah Hassan to “stand still and speak into the microphone … I can’t hear what you’re saying”.

Dr Chua was launching the ministry’s RM2 million National Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC) at its Disease Control Division with a mock video conference with Dr Nordianah about an outbreak of upper respiratory tract infection among the students of two schools.

Her voice, sometimes loud, sometimes soft, and at times completely inaudible, Dr Nordianah had to repeat her presentation twice because of a poor connection.

Finally, a frustrated Dr Chua gave up and moved on to complete his schedule at the CPRC – with a few choice words for the telecommunications authorities.

“Malaysian telephone lines need to be upgraded. It’s the truth. It’s so difficult to get a clear line,” he fumed.

“When I was at a private heart centre in Bangalore, India, recently, I had a video-conference with a patient in Cheras. The line was so clear, even the media there could interview the patient.”

The CPRC is a Ninth Malaysia Plan project to link the Disease Control Division with each of the state Health Departments through video conferencing.

To be headed by the Ministry’s Communicable Disease Control director, Datuk Dr Hasan Abdul Rahman, it is designed to manage outbreaks of disease, natural and other disasters, and any other crisis which requires the intervention of the health authorities.

Ordinarily, it would be manned from Monday to Friday by a specially trained five-member team.

“But it would be operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week, if there was a crisis. It would also keep abreast of what was happening internationally so it could activate the action plan to deal with any health crisis,” said Dr Chua.

The CPRC will handle outbreaks of disease, unusual deaths, or deaths due to unknown diseases, disasters that have health implications such as tsunami, floods and bio-terrorism.

The general public can also give or get information from its hotline: 03-88106000.

World Health Organisation representative for Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore, Dr Han Tieru, who attended the launch, said Malaysia had very good surveillance and response systems for disease outbreaks in the region.

He said it was because of the country’s systems and preparedness that it was able to handle well and quickly the recent outbreaks of Avian Influenza and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

He added that the CPRC was also connected to the Centres for Disease Control in Atlanta, United States; WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland; and its centre in Manila, the Philippines.

Dr Tieru praised Malaysia for being one of the first countries in the region to have a comprehensive CPRC which connects the whole country through its communication and networking system and video conferencing.

He said he had visited some of the state health centres and was impressed with the set-up for handling crises and disasters at both district and state levels.

He said the information and data collection was commendable, although as the Health Minister said, the communication system must be improved.

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