Ugak Kumbong (3rd left) and other VIPs during the gathering.
KAPIT: Member of Parliament for Hulu Rajang, Datuk Wilson Ugak Kumbong hoped that the Ministry of Health (MOH) would listen to Kapit’s plight and address the pressing need to build a new hospital to meet the increasing demand for quality health care because of the expected increase in the population in the next few years.
“I hope MOH would listen to our plight to build a new hospital in Kapit because in three to four years from now, Kapit’s population is expected to increase by at least 10,000 people. At present Kapit has an estimated population of 120,000.
The 10,000 are construction workers of the Baleh Hydro Dam project. The exiting hospital built by the Methodist Mission in 1950s and taken over by the government in 1974 has 134 beds only.
“Being a referral hospital covering four districts namely Song, Kapit, Bukit Mabong and Belaga and two sub-districts of Nanga Merit and Sungai Asap we need to enhance our health care services to recruit more health care workers like surgeons, paediatricians, psychiatrics, ENT specialists, ophthalmology, cardiology, radiology, medical officers, technicians and nurses,” said Ugak at a gathering with Deputy Minister of Health, Dato Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya and members of his delegation at Dewan Serbaguna Sri Baleh here, recently.
He said it was difficult to invite a Federal Minister or a Deputy Minister to Kapit. Ugak disclosed that he had spoken on a few occasions during budget sittings in Parliament to invite the Minister of Health to come to Kapit to see for himself the actual situations on the ground.
Ugak also expressed his dissatisfaction on the shortage of staff and facilities in Kapit Hospital and clinics in the Kapit Division.
He added that rural clinics are old and dilapidated which required immediate attention and cited Nanga Mujong Clinic as an example. He was delighted that the Deputy Minister of MOH, Dato Seri Dr. Hilmi Yahaya and his high powered delegation accepted his invitation to visit Kapit to see for themselves the health care services and facilities that need improvement.
He hoped after the visit, they have a better picture of how much the people of Kapit have suffered over the years because of the lack of specialists and health care facilities including sending patients for referral to Sibu or Kuching which is dangerous and costly.
“I have spoken during the budget on urgency to build a new hospital with 250 beds to meet the growing demand. We support the government in the general election and I hoped the government to reciprocate with favourable response because quality health care is an important aspect in life.
Today Kapit is the last frontier which will be accessible by road in near future. We also ‘light up’ Sarawak with three major dams namely Bakun, Murum and Baleh with a combined power of 4,000 MW,” Ugak pointed out.
Touching on the ‘Ekspres Klinik Satu Malaysia’ (1Malaysia Express Boat Clinic), Ugak told Hilmi that the boat is currently berthed at Belaga Jetty and malfunctioned and the servicing could not be done as funds allocated for the boat maintenance has been exhausted a year ago. The CSS Cleaner is a brilliant free online tool to take care of your dirty markup.
