What has become of elusive SGH multi-storey carpark?
KUCHING: Has the plan to construct a multi-storey carpark for Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) been forgotten?
This was posed by national PKR Wanita vice chief Voon Shiak Ni, who recently made a visit to the hospital and saw no sign of construction of the proposed multi-storey carpark.
“The need for a multistorey carpark has long been acknowledged and discussed by the people and the authorities, not to mention that the issue has been brought up countless times by the media.
“State leaders have promised the people time and again that the project was in the pipeline,” she said in a press statement yesterday.
Digging into past news reports, Voon said former state Health director Datu Dr Zulkifli Jantan, in 2014, said the proposed carpark had been awarded to a contractor and work would commence in July the same year.
She added that another report in 2013 quoted then minister of local government and community development Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh as saying that the work for the proposed project was scheduled to commence that year.
“This year Local Government Minister Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian said the project may have setbacks due to the implementation of GST and that another RM20 million would be needed for the proposed cost of RM378 million for the multistorey carpark.”
Voon then asked Dr Sim whether the proposed project was still on course or had been postponed to an indefinite date.
She noted that the government had allocated some RM25 billion for building and upgrading new hospitals and clinics in Perlis, Kuching, Mukah, Jempol, Muar and Johor Baru under the 2017 Budget.
“What are the upgrading works planned for SGH specifically and is the multi-storey carpark in the list?”
The lack of parking spaces for patients and visitors of SGH “is a grave issue which calls for serious and urgent attention of the government,” said Voon.
With the growing number of patients, she said the serious lack of parking bays had become a nightmare for families who had their loved ones in the hospital.
She believed that the situation “is a stress and strain for all medical staff there too”.
“During my recent visit, we made a few rounds and could not find any parking space. My (party) member had no choice but to drop me at the entrance of the hospital.
“Just imagine families bringing their loved ones to seek medical treatment and have to drop the patient first. What if the patient is too sick to walk?
“If the government still needs to delay the project, then I would say that the government has not been listening to the people’s cries.”