Not every
Cambodian doctor is incompetent, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday, in a
rebuff to critics of the Kingdom’s healthcare sector.
Speaking
at the inauguration ceremony of a new University of Health Sciences building
and to celebrate the university’s 70th anniversary, the premier claimed that
most doctors in the country help people and that the mistakes made by some
doctors should not reflect poorly on Cambodia’s larger healthcare sector.
“I do not
agree with someone who said that 90 percent of medical doctors are bad. Only 10
percent of doctors are good, so can the doctors accept this accusation? It
seems it is looking down on doctors,” Mr. Hun Sen said, adding that he and
other Cambodians received quality care from in-country doctors.
This
statement comes despite having Mr. Hun Sen’s in February traveled to Singapore
earlier this year for his annual health check-up. Defending the visit, the
prime minister said his seeking routine medical treatment outside Cambodia did
not mean medical treatment inside Cambodia was poor.
“If 90
percent of doctors are bad, how many patients would be dead because of those
bad doctors?” Mr. Hun Sen asked yesterday, before launching into a speech about
the reform of the health sector and adding it would require cross-ministry
cooperation. Even the Ministry of Transport would be required to reform the
health sector, he said.
Mr. Hun
Sen’s comments are in reference to those made previously by Dr. Mengly Quach,
the America-trained president of his eponymous medical school, which has three
branches across the Kingdom. Dr. Quach said in February that nine of 10 doctors
in Cambodia are “bad,” “arrogant” and lack “professionalism, compassion,
morals, and gentleness.”
Mom
Kunthear
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