Michael Tiang
KUCHING (Nov 24): Deputy Minister for Public Health, Housing and Local Government Michael Tiang said there is no plan to build a new hospital in Mukah.
He said this is because Mukah Hospital is currently providing specialist services under the Cluster Hospital Concept, where the specialists from Bintulu Hospital are conducting periodic visiting specialist clinics in Mukah Hospital.
“The federal Ministry of Health had also announced on Sept 8, 2022 to upgrade Mukah Hospital to Minor Specialist Hospital,” he said when replying to a question from Telian assemblyman Roystein Valentine (GPS-PBB).
In response to Roystein’s supplementary questions, Tiang said Cluster Hospital Concept was initiated by the Ministry of Health since 2014 to broaden and optimise service delivery of specialist care to the rural areas.
He said a cluster, comprising of several hospitals in the same locality, is led by a major specialist or state hospital which aims to improve coordination between hospitals and to increase coverage of specialist care.
“This shall help to improve the quality of healthcare delivery to community regardless of location. To date, six Cluster Hospitals involving 23 hospitals in Sarawak have been formed,” he added.
Tiang said Mukah Hospital is a one of the non-lead hospitals of “Hospital Kluster Sarawak Barat” together with Dalat Hospital under the Bintulu Hospital.
He added that the specialists in Bintulu Hospital will provide visiting services to both non-lead hospitals to ensure delivery of specialist care to both areas.
“Mukah Hospital currently provides visiting specialist services in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Psychiatry, Otorhinolaryngology (Ear, Nose & Throat), Ophthalmology (Eye), Paediatric, Emergency Medicine and Radiology,” he said.
He pointed out that Mukah Hospital was officiated in 1971 with 25 beds and functioned as a non-specialist hospital.
He said the number of beds in the hospital have increased to 80 beds in 1993, catering for a total population of 49,800 (Department of Statistics Malaysia year 2020) in Mukah District.
He said the bed occupancy rate (BOR) from January to June 2022 average around 34.68 per cent.