KUCHING: The lack of land for the expansion and upgrade of the Tanah Puteh Health Clinic here needs to be addressed if the government is to tackle the problems faced by the clinic, said Bandar Kuching Member Or Parliament (MP) Dr Kelvin Yii.
To better understand some of the complaints by the public regarding the clinic Dr Yii, accompanied by Pending assemblywoman Violet Yong, paid a visit to the clinic yesterday (April 14).
“Recently I have been accused by my political opponents of dismissing the things I have done for this clinic; instead they have demanded that I fight to build a new clinic.
“The core issue here is the lack of land for proper expansion and upgrade of this old government clinic.
“The issue of land falls under the jurisdiction of the state government and Ido hope that the state government can provide a strategic new location for the clinic,” he said in a statement.
He said the land and location had to be agreed upon by both the federal and state governments and then for the Ministry of Health (MoH) to allocate the required funds to build a new clinic.
Dr Yii said he had received multiple complaints on the long wait at the clinic as well as the hot weather at the outdoor waiting area, adding that the existing awning providing shade at the ambulance area where the chairs were situated was sponsored by his office.
He said DAP would try its best to help if additional improvements had to be made.
“So, we were informed by the staff at the clinic that they recently changed and upgraded their numbering system which had caused somewhat delay as the patients were still not familiar with the system.
“This system is also being used at Kesihatan Sentosa Clinic. We tried to understand the system better and give some of our inputs to improve it, including having more signage to help the public understand the flow.
“We will also see how we can help with more shades at the outside waiting area,” Dr Yii said.