Plans afoot to upgrade all rural clinics in Sarawak — Dr Hilmi

MIRI: Plans are in the pipeline to upgrade all the 41 rural clinics in Sarawak, to provide better healthcare for those living in the rural areas.

Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahya said this when making a short stop at the Miri Hospital to check on the medical facilities and to give away Chinese New Year hampers to the patients.

“I have personal ly visited many of the rural clinics ( klinik desa) and health clinics ( klinik kesihatan). It is really sad to see that most of these places are very old, dilapidated and seriously lacking in facilities. We have plans to upgrade these places to make them better,” he said.

He revealed that most of the vi l lage clinics ( klinik desa) provided only antenatal services without facilities for outpatients.

“Therefore, the plan is to upgrade these clinics to KK type- 7 which includes both antenatal clinic and outpatient clinic.

“Of course, this would take time and also a lot of money, but we want to make it inclusive to everyone, not just for certain patients,” he said.

Besides these clinics, he said the department also provided mobile clinics, boat clinics as well as flying doctor service that are always on standby to help.

“We are doing all we can to make sure that everyone gets the healthcare they deserve,” he added.