The dual-carriageway access road should be built soonest possible

Date: Saturday, February 13, 2010

We refer to the news report 'RM10M upgrade for the QEH2-Lintas road' as published in Daily Express on 13-Feb-2010
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The announcement of the above is laudable but regrettably that it will only be a reality by 2012, if all goes well as estimated, planned, and executed.

It's a good reflection of government's sensitivity toward the public interest in the Damai area where the main aim of the access road was meant to ease up the traffic in the Jalan Damai/Jalan Kolam, but unfortunately without the consideration of the ambulance needs of the hospital - the newly acquired government hospital, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital II (QEH II which is formerly Sabah Medical Centre).

The speedy access of the ambulance to and from the hospital to the various vicinities of the city is mandatory; and it's timeliness will have much significant effect on the aspect of life saving efforts as every seconds and minutes are important to the survival of the patients in transit.

The announcement by the Director of JKR, En. John Anthony, is a relief but fall short of our expectation as the project will only take off in 2011. Time is important in life-saving, and in view of that, we wish that the authority consider to use the emergency fund to build the dual-carriageway road soonest possible.

The public or users of QEH I & II have been suffering enough of the ordeal of inferior infrastructure, and the 'special-arrangement' of human resources and facilities 'juggling' due to the sudden discovery of bad structure of the main tower block in November, 2008.

In order to save more lives, the federal government, through the efforts of the relevant personnels in the Ministry of Health, and subsequently, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, had then decided to purchase the present QEH II building and its facility at a cost of RM380M, and had also allocated another RM90M for the necessary additional renovation and equipments; all of these under 'emergency' funding!

The JKR, or the relevant authority, in making the funding, or approval, must therefore do likewise based on 1Malaysia motto: 'People First, Performance Now'.

Thank you.


Chu Kong Ming
Chairman
Hospital Visitor Board (Queen Elizabeth Hospital)
e-mail: ckmalph@gmail.com