Citing the widely publicised case of a woman who gave birth near a railway because she was denied medical assistance, Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday called for timely medical access for all.

The prime minister urged health professionals to ensure that they provided adequate medical service even on holidays in order to avoid cases like that of Chea Chet, who gave birth on her way home after being turned away from the King Father Referral Hospital and told no staff were on standby to help.

“Just one case like this can delete a hundred thousand good cases,” the prime minister said.

Improving access to health care involved not only raising salaries but also providing better roads and bridges to ensure that patients could reach care on time, he said.

“Sometimes patients’ life or death depends on if we are short of bridges.”

The government should also work to “eliminate all fake medicines, illegal pharmacies and punish perpetrators,” Hun Sen said.

In the past year, 99 new commune health centres opened and the Ministry of Health recorded 3.8 million cases of poor Cambodians making use of free health care services – double the number from 2011.