The New Diagnostic Floor — Daily Dose of Chemo

Datuk Kalai trying out the new booking system

The fifth floor at the Outpatient Building at SJMC used to be occupied by the central laboratory. It housed everything, including the main blood-taking area and even the blood bank. We even housed the collected stem cells, do cytogenetics and grew our cultures on the same floor. Despite the small size, everything was squeezed into the space.

The main counter for the diagnostic services

Since last year, the central laboratory was moved to a more spacious area, occupying the whole of the fourth floor at the Mediplex. It has its pluses as well as minuses, but I guessed, things had to move on. They also carried a similar theme to the third-floor Mediplex clinics as well as the Chemotherapy Day Care at the South Tower.

Earlier today, we had the newly renovated area on display for the Doctors and staffs to see. The old laboratory area had now been converted to house the diagnostics department as well as space for ten clinic suites. Beautiful new rooms, but its concept has moved away from the other clinics on the building which had separate consultations and examinations area. We had one large room instead, more spacious than the layout of the other clinic, but it somehow lacks privacy for the patients.

How the inside of the clinic suite looks like

The QMS system for blood taking and tracking

The counter for the clinic helpers also appeared more organised and comfortable. They now had a purpose-built treatment area as well as a large open area with nice seating for patients waiting for their clinic appointments.

The suites would be occupied by the Cardiologists, Chest Physicians and Cardiothoracic Surgeons mainly, making cross-referring of patients easier as well as place to put common equipment. It also made sense for the Cardiologist to have their clinic on that floor since ECG, echocardiography as well as treadmill tests can be done next door. This would save time for the patients and made their flow smoother.

I am not sure when the clinic would be opened though. But it seemed all the bits and pieces were in place. Once this was completed, it may be time to start modifying the Cancer Centre, where hopefully in the future, I would have my clinic.