KOTA KINABALU – The Health Ministry will upgrade dilapidated health clinics in Sabah soon, its minister Khairy Jamaluddin promised.
Khairy said he had applied for funds from the Finance Ministry to upgrade 326 health clinics in the state and is hoping the allocation will be approved.
“Out of the total, 287 clinics are dilapidated with structures still made of wood and are no longer safe to be utilised. We will upgrade another 39 clinics that are not very dilapidated but are not comfortable (for users).
“These are among projects that we will implement soonest,” he said at a press conference after the launching ceremony of the Agenda Nasional Malaysia Sihat (ANMS) Tour here today.
Khairy said the ministry is serious about its efforts to upgrade healthcare facilities and services in Sabah, adding that he understands the struggles Sabahans face.
He said that he had presented the ministry’s plans to the meeting of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) special council last Thursday, and the plans are supported by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
“All our plans will be brought to the Economic Planning Unit to be included in the coming Malaysia plans,” he said.
Yesterday, during a live video conference at the health white paper briefing here, Khairy said that the ministry is planning, among others, to increase the number of specialist services in Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), Sandakan Duchess of Kent Hospital, and Tawau Hospital; upgrade the Keningau and Lahad Datu hospitals from minor specialist facilities to major specialist hospitals, and upgrade the Kota Marudu, Beaufort and Tuaran hospitals from non-specialist to minor specialist hospitals.
Today, Khairy explained that the ministry is planning to implement the above items within eight to ten years under the 12th and 13th Malaysia Plans, noting that it would take ten years to train someone to become a specialist.
“We are doing this because we know, in order to receive specialist treatment, Sabahans have to travel very far to Kota Kinabalu, and even to Kuala Lumpur. So, it is better that we bring the specialists to areas in need,” he said.
Earlier, Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor, when launching today’s event, said the Sabah government hopes that the Health Ministry would upgrade the state’s clinics from wooden structures to concrete buildings.
He also hoped that Sabah’s youth would be given job opportunities in the medical and healthcare fields.
On the Sabah government’s part, Hajiji said scholarships and educational loans will be offered to Sabahans pursuing medical studies.
“I will ask Yayasan Sabah and the state Civil Service Department to give serious attention to Sabahans’ applications in the medical course, in line with the demand for more medical specialists in Sabah,” he said. –The Vibes, September 10, 2022
