Three New Hospitals To Be Built In Sarawak

SIBU, May 18 (Bernama) -- Lawas, Kota Samarahan and Mukah in Sarawak will get new hospitals under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP), Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad said Thursday.
He said the three hospitals were among eight new ones that would be built throughout the country.
Also to be built were 108 rural health clinics, which were a continuation from the Eight Malaysia Plan (8MP), he told reporters after opening the Selangau health clinic, about 80km from here.
The clinic costing RM14.3 million was completed in Nov, 2003 and began operations on Sept 1, 2004.
According to Abdul Latiff, the specifications of the health clinics to be built in Sarawak would be different from that of the peninsula as considerations were made for special needs of the people living in the interior of the state.
"We have added extra features like maternity wards and facilities for post-natal care, which are not available in health clinics in the peninsula," he said.
Abdul Latiff also said that his ministry would organise outreach programmes in all public and private universities offering medical courses to give a better insight of the actual situation in the vast landscape of Sarawak for graduate doctors going to serve in the state.
He said government doctors had to accept the fact that their services were needed in rural areas.
"The government will give priority for financing of specialist studies to doctors who served in rural areas," he added.