Bandar Seri Begawan - The Ministry of Health (MoH) continues its development activities in a bid to improve its services, the latest being the construction of a new Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Plant at the Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha (Ripas) hospital to accommodate the needs of the public.

Yesterday saw the foundation-laying ceremony for the construction of the new plant, officiated by Pehin Orang Kaya Indera Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Hj Suyoi Hj Osman, Minister of Health.

The project, which costs more than $15.8 million, is being operated by HSE Engineering Sdn Bhd and will run over a construction period of 14 months, completing in February next year.

The plant, constructed on a site of 0.89 acres at the temporary car park area beside Ripas hospital, is a three-storey building which also offers laundry services for the hospital and estate management.

Among the purpose of the building is to improve the air-conditioning and electrical system at Ripas hospital as well as improving the laundry services provided at the hospital.

Hjh Siti Mariam Hj Md Jaafar, acting chief executive officer (CEO) of Ripas hospital, said that the ministry has also planned to provide shuttle park services from the nearest allocated parking zone or even build a multi-storey car park in the future to control traffic flow, should there be a need to do so.

"We are aware of the possible inconveniences caused to the public by this project, especially in an environment like the hospital, but we need them (the public) to understand that what we are doing is to accommodate their needs too," she said, adding that the hospital has been receiving a number of feedback where patients previously complained that patient clothing and bedlinens were not clean enough. Hjh Mariam advised the public to be considerate should they face any difficulties during the construction period and added that more upgrading of facilities will be on the way to improve patient's welfare at the hospital.

"Just bear with us, we are aware of these inconveniences and will do our best to minimise them," she said.

In an effort to minimise the disturbances that may be caused by the project's operation, Lim Wei Sui, consulting project manager of LAH Consultants, said that the project has lined up a number of measures. "For the piling works, we are using hydraulic injection, which causes no impact and/or vibration. Therefore, eliminating noise during the process itself," he said.

Lim also added that material deliveries are only carried out on Fridays and Sundays in an effort to minimise possible inconveniences to the public. According to Lim, the construction period is shorter than usual because MoH has assigned HSE Engineering solely to handle the project as previous projects took longer to complete as it involved many parties.-- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

< Prev		Next >