Tan (standing front row centre) flanked by Yeoh (right) and Dr Roland having a photocall with guests, staff and family members.
MIRI: Miri City can expect an enhanced medical and healthcare services by 2020 with the completion of the second Columba Asia Hospital Miri (CAHM) to be sited at Marina – in the heart of the city.
The chief executive officer of Southeast Asia, Columbia Asia Group Kelvin Tan said the hospital is to meet the increasing population and to complement the services of its existing hospitals in Miri including CAHM in Jalan Bulan Sabit.
The new hospital costing between RM50 million and RM70 million wil be the third in Sarawak after the ones in Miri and Bintulu divisions.
“In Malaysia, currently there are 12 Columbia Asia hospitals in operation and a new hospital in Penang is forthcoming whereas there are 30 hospitals in total in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Africa and China,“ Tan disclosed to the press during the recent CAHM‘s 23rd anniversary dinner attended by over 160 staff.
Also present were CAH-East Malaysia regional general manger Yeok Kim Looi, medical services chief consultant obstetrician & gynaecologist Dr Roland Dom Mattu, consultant orthopaedic & trauma surgeon Dr P. C Anand, medical officers, invited guests, staff and their family members.
Tan added the new hospital in Miri will initially have 60 beds and if the need arises, they will increase it.
“Our emphasis is on small hospital as bigger hospital has a lot of overhead expenses. With the correct team and modern medicine, we could continue to provide quality health services to the people.
“With modern technology and medicine, the number of stays in hospitals could be shortened to one or three days even for open heart surgery compared to in the past, where patients‘ stays at hospital could be from five days to one week,“ he added
Meanwhile Yeoh in her speech earlier said apart from ensuring quality healthcare services, CAHM also prioritises activities to give back to the community.
“We engage and relate to the people in Miri when they are well, not just talk about disease but want them to live a better quality of life, be proactive so that they can improve the value of life,” she said.
At the same time, Yeoh said CAHM too gives great emphasis to the welfare of its staff and one project implemented this month was a keep-fit programme.
She said it is a three-month programme whereby staff undergo health screening programmes and other activities to keep fit, like attending talk on nutrition and diet.
She said if successful, they will extend it to the community.
“Our hospital put emphasis on the wellbeing of employees and lined up many activities to maintain stronger rapport and teamwork among staff. As a team we go hiking, eat durians, run together and have nasi lemak for breakfast and celebrating birthdays. End of last year, we had a futsal tournament and Christmas carolling in the hospital,” said Yeoh.
Among other community projects they held was the charity corrective surgery for cleft lips and palate organised jointly with the Cleft Lip and Palate Association of Malaysia (CLAPAM) and health talks.
At the same time, Yeoh said they will constantly upgrade facilities at the hospital including replacing old and purchasing new medical equipment such as stress machine, upper and lower scope and 3D laprascopic camera system.
The dinner gathering featured performances and games by guests, staff and family members where local country band Mountain Wind added merriment to the celebration.