THE construction of the proposed multi-storey car park project at Sarawak General Hospital is expected to commence this year once the contractor has been appointed.
Local Government and Community Development Minister Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh said the proposed project is in the final stage of ‘Swiss Challenge Tender’ under the private funding initiative and is currently being evaluated by the Prime Minister’s Department Public Private Partnership Unit.
“This project took a long time to finalise because it comprises three components, namely multi-storey car park complex which consists of two blocks, the West Block meant for staff and the North Block meant for patients, visitors and others. The North Block car park will include shop lots and medi-hotel.
“The proposal for a daycare centre includes the development of a three-storey building comprising medical day care and Pediatric day care; Endoscopy and Surgical Day Care; Surgical Store as well as monitoring and evaluation (M&E).
“The third component is the Pathology or Blood Bank Block which is proposed to be a four-storey building that houses the existing Pathology block and blood transfusion services,” he said in his winding-up speech for his ministry at the State Legislative Assembly here yesterday.
Wong, who is also Bawang Assan assemblyman, disclosed that as of May this year, a total of 43 development projects with a ceiling of RM460.6 million had been approved under the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP), which included 23 projects for the construction of a new clinic complex comprising of clinics and quarters, 11 projects for upgrading of hospital services, three projects for the construction of new hospital buildings, one project for the construction of drugs store and two projects for construction of additional quarters.
Other projects including establishment of a dental mobile squad for primary school, water supply fluoridation project and the construction of a new complex for Sarawak State Health Department located at Jalan Diplomatik, off Jalan Bako.
“Out of the total projects implemented, 12 projects have been completed, 16 projects are on schedule, 12 projects are ahead of schedule while the remaining three projects are behind schedule.”
Earlier in his speech, Wong said the State Health Department continues to provide medical services through its 22 hospitals, adding that various efforts had been and would continue be taken to ensure provision of quality medical care and services to the people in the state.
“To ease congestion in major hospitals, day care services are being strengthened whereby procedures can be done on selected patients without having to admit them to the wards.
“At the same time, selected patients from major hospitals are sent to nearby non-specialist district hospitals for minor surgery. This has helped to reduce the waiting time for surgery in major hospitals.”
Besides that, Wong said the Ministry of Health is in the process of upgrading all except seven ‘Klinik Desa’, which is the lowest level of clinic, to ‘Klinik Kesihatan’ which provide full scope of services such as outpatient, maternal and child health services.