KOTA KINABALU: A piece of four-hectare land has been set aside for the building of a Sabah Heart Institute, says Datuk James Ratib.
However, the Sabah Community Development and People’s Wellbeing Minister said the construction of the institute near Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) has not been planned yet.
“The focus now is to upgrade the heart centre of Queen Elizabeth Hospital II (HQE II), which has been in operation since 2012,” he said, adding RM80mil was allocated for the upgrade.
“The allocation will be used to expand the emergency area, upgrade beds, recruit specialists, and possibly upgrade the operating theatre, among others,” said the Sugut assemblyman of Gabungan Rakyat Sabah during the question-and-answer session at the State Assembly on Wednesday.
For now, the operating theatre can only perform four heart surgeries per day at most. After the upgrade, it can handle 10 surgeries daily.
On a supplementary question by Datuk Dr Jaujan Sambakong (Sulabayan-Warisan), who asked if HQE II would be renamed and its services changed to cater just for heart diseases, James said the current name would stay and that the medical services provided would also remain.
“This will stay until we have a new Sabah Heart Institute on the new piece of land near UMS, which was set aside by the state government recently,” he said.
Moyog assemblyman Datuk Darell Leiking wanted to know when the long-awaited Type 3 Moyog Health Clinic would begin operations to help ease overcrowding in hospital wards.
James said there was a slight delay due to technical issues, among other matters.
He added that a monthly meeting was held to discuss issues, including those pertaining to the Moyog Health Clinic.
“The federal Works Ministry took over the work but has now returned it to the state department to handle,” he said.
