No QEH II delay pledge, Heart centre among many specialized services after hospital upgraded – Liow

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KOTA KINABALU: The Health Ministry will ensure the Queen Elizabeth Hospital II (QEH II) upgrading project is completed on schedule by February next year.

As such, the contractor which has pledged to complete the RM76.2 million project on schedule will get a warning if the project is delayed by 30 days, and will lose the contract if it is delayed by 60 days, Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said.

“Yes, we are very serious, that’s why I personally monitor this project. I must thank Pasukan Project Sabah, Public Works Department (PWD) Malaysia for monitoring the project closely,” he told reporters after the briefing yesterday.

“There are not many hospitals in the country which have more than 100 per cent occupancy and this is happening here in Sabah. So I do not want the project to be delayed… I do not want any bureaucracy to delay the work,” he said.

“No bureaucracy… no outside factor to delay the project and I will assist the best I can to ensure that the work proceeds smoothly,” he added during a visit to QEH II, which is formerly Sabah Medical Center (SMC) at Damai Road here.

Liow was briefed on the project by Public Works Department’s Pasukan Project Sabah (PPS) general manager Major Mohd Tajul Urus bin Tajudin and QEH II director Dr Awang Setia Musleh.

Also present were the representatives of MRCB, which is the contractor carrying out the project, and Sabah Health Director Dr Yusof Ibrahim.

“Although it is 13 days behind schedule, MRCB has given us the guarantee that they will be able to complete the project on schedule, which is by February 2011. When completed, there will be additional 358 hospital beds in Sabah,” he said.

“Once SMC vacates the building, we will have a total of 455 beds,” he said, adding that he was happy with the progress of both QEH I and QEH II.

Liow said he has stressed to the contractor just how crucial the project is because he wants QEH II to provide better services for the people in Sabah.

“We will have a heart centre here as well as many specialized services to cater to the needs of people in Sabah. By the end of next year, we are going to have 200 more beds at the Likas Women and Children Hospital.

“By the end of 2012, we will have an addition of 600 beds at the QEH I, so there will be more than 1,000 beds in the state capital,” Liow said.

Also included in the project is a multi-storey car park which can accommodate about 327 vehicles. The existing parking area at QEH II can only accommodate about 70 vehicles and while the five-level car park is being built, the contractor has prepared a temporary car park that can also accommodate about 70 vehicles just behind the hospital.

According to Liow, the people’s patience in the next seven months will be very much appreciated, as there will be massive works going on at QEH II.

“We urge the public to be patient and we apologise for all the inconvenience caused. They should however realise that what we are doing is for their good,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, on the parking problem at Tawau Hospital, Liow said his ministry has allocated RM4 million for the construction of a multi-storey car park there.

The project, which is currently in the planning stage, will be implemented under the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP), he said, adding that the issue has been resolved and there will be no privatization of the existing car park.

He said a temporary car park with 350 bays will be built soon to resolve the problem.