Delay in completion of healthcare centre not acceptable by the people — MP

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KOTA KINABALU: The nuclear and radiotherapy medical centre at Likas Hospital is long overdue from its scheduled completion and is not acceptable to the people, said Kota Kinabalu member of parliament Hiew King Cheu.

He said Sabah DAP had been receiving many complaints on the late completion of the centre for use by patients.

“The complainants are asking as to why the project takes so long to finish by the appointed contractor who is not capable and qualified to carry out the task,” said Hiew yesterday.

Hiew, who is also the Sabah DAP advisor, said construction of the nuclear and radiotherapy medical centre had been going on since 2009, and until today, work was still moving very slowly.

He recounted that the Health Ministry had issued a warning to the contractor and that a penalty of RM40,000 per day on the delay had been enforced.

“On site inspection, we see that the external and internal works are still going on and it is unsure when the project is finally completed and handed over to the Health Ministry.

“There are a lot of instrumentations and fitting works to be done  inside the building and these need time to be installed.”

He lamented that in the meantime, patients were forced to continue to wait and some of them would not even have the chance to recover from their ailment.

Hiew said he was informed that many patients would have to wait for quite a while before they could get the required treatment.

“The Health Minister should give us a proper explanation and not sweeping the matter under the carpet,” he contended.

Hiew said this was not the first time this sort of things happen in Sabah as the people had seen ample examples that clinics, polyclinics, and hospitals were abandoned not too long after work began.

“The most glaring one is the QEH1 twin tower block project which was abandoned after a few months.

The Nabawan Polyclinic project in the interior did not get off the ground either, and now the nuclear and radiotherapy centre is delayed.”