BY NATASHA JEE & ABIDGAIL MARTHA
KUCHING: Sarawak records an average of 350 colorectal cancer or colon cancer yearly, said Deputy Premier Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian.
Colon cancer is the most common type of cancer reported in the country.
“There are so many deaths caused by colon cancer in Malaysia, and one of the reasons is due to lack of screening,” he told reporters after officiating at the opening ceremony of the Coloproctology 2023 conference at Pullman Hotel here today.
Dr Sim, who is also Minister of Public Health, Housing and Local Government, congratulated the Malaysian Colorectal Surgeon Society for organising the conference and related programmes to raise more awareness about colon cancer.
Once the proposed Sarawak Cancer Centre is completed, it will treat all types of cancers including colon cancer.
On a related matter, the deputy premier said he will ensure the construction of the Sarawak Cancer Centre comes to fruition.
“We will follow up with the federal government to get the cancer centre going. And this will include the necessary facilities to treat colon cancer,” he said.
Asked on the latest progress regarding the construction of the cancer centre which is expected to cost RM1 billion, Dr Sim explained that Sarawak is waiting for the federal government to formally sign the agreement on the matter before work can start.
“If they (federal government) don’t sign, and when we build it, later on they won’t want to pay,” he said.
The Sarawak State Health Department and Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) have presented the details of the project to the Ministry of Health (MoH).
“Now, among the matters that need to be looked into are the number of beds needed. It depends on whether we want 300, 400 or 500 beds to cater for the future. The 300 beds are about RM800 million, 400 beds about RM1 billion and 500 beds RM1.2 billion,” he said.
“When you do hospital planning, you may not need to have so many beds right away but you need to have the space. Otherwise, you need to rebuild again.
“So to all those politicians who are just trying to attract cheap publicity saying that Dr Sim is confused and has no idea how much the beds cost, they are the ones who are confused because they do not know about hospital planning,” he said.
