TWO new hospitals and an expansion of the state-owned Normah Medical Specialist Centre (NMSC) in Petrajaya will add 1,000 more hospital beds in Sarawak in the next five years, Premier Abang Johari Openg said.
He said the 35-year-old NMSC and the two new private hospitals, both of which will be built in Kuching, will have 300 beds each.
The university hospital at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak in Samarahan, which is nearing completion, and the yet to be built 300-bed, RM1 billion cancer centre adjacent to the university hospital, will bring the number of beds to almost 1,200, the premier added.
Currently, Sarawak has about 3,000 hospital beds with the Sarawak general hospital in Kuching boasting the most, around 1,000.
Sibu Hospital has about 500 beds.
NSMC, a not-for-profit private hospital owned by Sarawak Medical Centre Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of the Sarawak State Financial Secretary (SFS) Incorporation, has only 150 beds.
Abang Johari said the hospital would be relocated to “an area that will have a hotel and a commercial area”.
One of the private hospitals, he said, would be built in the Tabuan Jaya area of Kuching City while the other would be in Batu Lintang.
Both new hospitals, like NSMC, would have state-of-the-art medical equipment to treat a variety of ailments.
Abang Johari said the investments in health care in the state could be prompted by the increasing number of Indonesians coming to the state to seek medical treatment.
He said the expansion of Normah was certainly the case.
Abang Johari also said that when the state-owned airline started operating and air connectivity to the state improved, he believed more people from neighbouring countries, apart from Indonesia, would travel to Sarawak to seek medical treatment.
“(The airline) will create connectivity for patients to fly in,” he said while launching the 8th Asia-Pacific Conference on Public Health.
The premier last night also said the federal government had finally agreed to Sarawak’s proposal to build the cancer centre.
Sarawak’s proposal is for the state to come up with the RM1 billion fund first, which the federal government will reimburse later.
The arrangement, Abang Johari said, is the first of its kind.
“It’s the first time a state government allocates funds for a federal project,” he said.
The RM1 billion cost includes the purchase of equipment and the recruitment of oncologists (cancer specialists).
Abang Johari said the centre would greatly reduce the cost of cancer treatment for people in Sarawak and Sabah.
“They do not have to fly to Kuala Lumpur for such treatment. The cost of flying to KL, if accompanied by family members, could be astronomical.
“There’s the Pan Borneo (highway). They can drive to Kuching, even from Sabah.” – July 10, 2024.
