KUCHING, July 9: Sarawak’s plan to improve its health facilities will not only benefit its people but will also lessen the burden of people from Sabah and neighbouring countries seeking medical treatment here, says Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg.
He said Sarawak’s health facilities will be further improved over the next five years following plans to expand its hospital bed capacity with investments from two foreign groups.
He said the state-owned Normah Medical Centre would have 300 more beds through its expansion plan while a Singapore-based company had committed to building another private hospital with about the same bed capacity, to be situated in the Tabuan Jaya area.
“(There will) one more (private hospital) in the Batu Lintang area with a 300-bed capacity. In other words, within these five years, we will have an additional 1,000 beds to be run by the private sector,” he said.
Officiating the 8th Asia Pacific Conference on Public Health 2024 here tonight, he said the Sarawak government would commence the development of a federal government cancer treatment centre in Kota Samarahan here with state funds initially and the state would be reimbursed later.
About 700 people from the Asia-Pacific are taking part in the three-day biennial conference, which started today, and with the themes of building a resilient health workforce, fostering innovation and addressing critical public health issues.
— BERNAMA