Materia Medica Malaysiana

Business News: Sesco group nets Sarawak hospital job

A CONSORTIUM comprising Sesco Engineering Sdn Bhd and Vamed Engineering GmbH & Co KG of Austria has been awarded the RM350mil first phase of the Sarawak International Medical Centre (SIMC) in Samarahan near Kuching.

Sesco Engineering is a subsidiary of Sarawak Electricity Supply Corp (Sesco).

The consortium will design, build, equip, commission and maintain SIMC, developed by state-owned Sarawak Specialist Hospital and Medical Centre Sdn Bhd.

The Mayo Foundation of US is the project’s consultant. The project’s feasibility study was carried out by the Mayo Clinic eight years ago.

Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud laid the foundation stone for the project on 40ha on Thursday.

Phase one of the project, expected to be ready in three years, will have a three-storey hospital podium complex and an eight-storey in-patient accommodation building, according to Sarawak Specialist Hospital and Medical Centre chairman Tan Sri Dr George Chan Hong Nam.

Dr Chan, also Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Finance and Industrial Development, said SIMC would have facilities that met the demand for a highly specialised modern health care system.

When operational, SIMC will have three specialist outpatient clinics, an accident and emergency department, kidney and stone centre, wellness and heart centre and a cancer centre.

There will be six operating theatres, an imaging department, a laboratory/pathology department, a cardiac catheterisation laboratory and a physiotherapy department.

Also to be provided are teaching/training and educational facilities as well as medical and non-medical support services.

Dr Chan said SIMC would have 166 beds, including 12 VIP suites.

“SIMC, when completed, will also serve as a major supplementary clinical teaching facility for Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.''