KUCHING: The federal government has approved more than RM1.1 billion for upgrading health facilities in Sarawak including building three hospitals and eight clinics.
The three hospitals take up the bulk of the allocation, given under the second rolling plan of the current Tenth Malaysian Plan, with Petrajaya Hospital costing RM500 million; Sri Aman Hospital (RM200 million) and Lawas Hospital (RM80 million).
The remaining allocation is used for the construction of eight clinics in Petrajaya, Bario, Ng Dada, Beladin, Teng Bekap, Munggu Lelang, Bintulu and Mid Layar Spak area.
“These clinics are in different stages of completion with a few having been completed. Petrajaya and Sri Aman hospitals will be completed in 2016 and Lawas Hospital is still in the ‘decanting’ stage.
“In term of allocation, we took up a large chunk of the development fund this year. We cannot say the federal government is not taking care of Sarawakians,” said state health director Datu Zulkifli Jantan yesterday.
He said this in response to the opposition’s claim the government failed to provide funds for the building of the much needed multi-storey car park of Sarawak General Hospital.
The multi-storey car park, he explained, had been approved under Public Private Partnership (PPP) as the federal government had deemed it a project of utmost urgency.
“That is why it is a PPP project as this year’s budget has already been allocated and there is no more allocation to be given for the building of the car park. However, as it is of utmost urgency, it has to come under PPP where a private company will be contracted to build it,” said Dr Zulkifli.
He said the car park, to commence construction next year, would be completed in three years’ time after which the users would be charged a minimal fee for parking their vehicles there.
“The private company that is contracted to build the facility will be collecting proceeds from the parking fees for a few years before it (facility) is handed over toSGH. At the moment, we are not sure of the rate of the parking fees or the mode of collection,” he said.
He added that at the moment the state Health Department was not able to know who the contractor but the PPP unit in the Prime Minister’s Department would soon make known its decision.
Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) national vice-women chief, Voon Shiak Ni, has through a press statement on Sept 29, questioned the government for the lack of funding for building the much awaited car park.
“For transparency of the information to the public, we call for disclosure of the details of the contract between SGH and the private company,” Voon has said.
She also demanded the disclosure of details on the number of years the private company would manage the car park, the rate of parking fees and mode of collection, among others.
No comments:
Post a Comment