SMC purchase only temporary to overcome health care services

KOTA KINABALU, 5 May 2009: SAPP Wanita Chief Melanie Chia said the move to purchase SMC is good temporarily to the people here, in particular, all over Sabah who had been deprived of such needy services after the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) main tower block was found to be unsafe for occupation since late last year. 

"However, the purchase is only an interim solution to a much bigger problems. Sabah still needed a new general hospital apart of the construction of a twin tower to replace the main tower block of the QEH," said Chia who is also Luyang Assembywoman in a statement responding to Najib's announcement, today.

Chia said that the take over must be done as soon as possible because it would incur more cost to the Government the longer it takes to complete the purchase.

She said the whopping RM70 million a year, just to relocate the QEH patients and 'outsource' health care services, as a short-term measure to deal with the crisis as revealed by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman recently showed the needs to come up with an effective solution to the crisis.

On the long-term measure to resolve the health care services issue as mentioned by the Chief Minister, that is to proceed with the construction of the 'twin towers' at the premises of QEH under the 10th Malaysia Plan (2011 – 2015), to provide for 661 beds, Chia contended that it is just too slow a solution to deal with the pressing situation.

"The Chief Minister also failed to mention whether such a plan would take place at the beginning or the end of the 10th Malaysia Plan, as well as the actual time needed to complete the 'twin towers'," she added.

She stressed that the construction of the twin towers should be carried out immediately in order to resolve the ongoing health care crisis here.

In announcing the SMC take over, Najib said he wanted the Ministry of Health to speed up the purchase process.

"We have approved the purchase of SMC by the Health Ministry at a very reasonable price of about RM245 million and, with a little addition, we can make improvements," he said at a meet-the-people session at Padang Merdeka here today.

Najib was also quoted as saying that the purchase of SMC was appropriate in view that it would take time to build a new hospital.

"We hope Najib in upholding the 1Malaysia concept - People First; Performance now - will also look into our energy supply problem as well as to reject the proposal to build a coal-fired power plant anywhere in the State," Chia said.

She said Sabah have been facing never ending power failures and the East Coast areas are the most hit but all measures to overcome is unable to solve the problem.

As such, the Federal Government should consider supplying Sabah energy from Bakun dam or Murum dam in Sarawak instead of Indonesia or Brunei as had been reported.

She said supply either from Bakun or Murum could solve energy inadequecy in the State via the East-West grid system, which have bneen completed.

According to her, Najib should also heed the call of the people to scrap the proposal to build a coal-fired power plant in Sabah as it could bring more misery than good things.

Chia said such plant could damage the environment and eco-system apart from exposing the people to illness.

Sabah Cabinet had in April 2008 rejected the proposed RM1.3bil coal powered plant being undertaken by Sabah Electricity Sdn. Bhd. (SESB), a subsidiary of Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), on environmental concerns.