PM: KEDAH TO HAVE ITS OWN HEART CENTRE
It will be set up at Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital under 11th Malaysia Plan
PRIME Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak yesterday announced that a heart surgery centre will be set up at Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital (HSB) in Alor Star.
He said the centre would be established as part of the RM1.6 billion allocation for Kedah healthcare under the 11th Malaysia Plan.
“Kedah folk will no longer need to travel to Penang to undergo heart surgery,” he said at the launch of the RM210 million Pendang Hospital project here.
The construction of the fourstorey hospital, on 4ha of land, will begin next month and is scheduled to be completed in two-and-a-half years.
Public Works Department director-general Datuk Seri Dr Roslan Md Taha said the hospital would be equipped with 126 beds and five wards, two operation theatres, eight labour rooms, an X-ray and ultrasound facility, dialysis and a rehabilitation unit.
Pendang Hospital will have specialist doctors, psychiatrists and surgical units.
It will provide paediatric and obstetric and gynecology treatments.
It will help ease congestion at HSB, which is located 24km from here.
Present at the groundbreaking event were Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah, Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid, Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya and state Health Department director Datuk Dr Nor Hizan Ismail.
Pendang folk expressed their gratitude to Najib for fulfilling their dream to have a hospital in this district.
Ghazali Othman, 58, from Kampung Gajah Mati here, said: “We have to travel 24km to Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital in Alor Star for emergency cases and to be warded.
“All this while, we have depended on the Pendang Health Clinic for basic health checkups and the waiting time is quite long because of the high number of patients,” he said.
Hasnah Ibrahim, 47, said she hoped the project would be completed according to schedule as people had been waiting for the hospital for 20 years. Page 1 pic: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak at the launch of the Suka Menanti People’s Housing Project in Alor Star yesterday. With him is Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah (to Najib’s right).