Materia Medica Malaysiana

Specialist complex project ‘not abandoned’

THE Health Ministry on Saturday denied that the proposed specialist complex at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital had been abandoned because the Federal Government has run out of funds.

Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said the development that will cost RM74 million was a little delayed as some changes had been made to the scope of work. The changes are to ensure optimal utilisation, especially in terms of flow of patients, he said.

“We want to make it more efficientÖthere are also changes in the IT component,” he said.

In this respect, he hoped the project, the foundation phase of which has already been completed, would take off by the end of this year or the latest by early next year.

According to Dr Chua, the Health Ministry was also trying to get allocation for the development of the 9-storey two tower blocks and a 5-storey podium.

When completed, the complex, located just adjacent to the QEH’s Post-Graduate Medical Centre (PGMC), would house all the government specialists under one roof.

Meanwhile, Dr Chua said Sabah was the largest recipient of healthcare allocations under the Eighth Malaysia Plan (8MP), getting about RM1.2 billion from the RM9.5 billion allocated to the Ministry.

He said the funds were for 164 projects in Sabah of which 31 per cent had been completed, while 26 projects were ongoing and another 87 planned, including the building of health clinics.

As for the QEH, he said from 1999 up to now, about RM51 million had been spent, namely for the PGMC, renovation of operation wards, ICU and ICCU (among others).

Asked on the development of Sabah Medical Centre (SMC), which was taken over by the Federal Government to be turned into a Women and Children Hospital, he said: “It would be operating once the renovation is completedÖhopefully by another year’s time.”