The state Health Department is hoping that the construction of the hospitals in Petra Jaya, Sri Aman and Lawas could be accelerated.

In stating this, its director Dr Jamilah Hashim said the proposed 300-bed Petra Jaya Hospital should be about 90 per cent completed by this month but the rate of progress was currently 46 per cent.

“The Petra Jaya Hospital is supposed to be completed in November 2016. The contractor was given an extension of time so the new completion date is June 9, 2017 which is about two months’ time.

“At the rate that they are going, there is no way that the hospital can be completed in two months’ time,” she said at the ‘One day with the media’ programme held at the state Health Department office here yesterday.

Dr Jamilah said the contractor cited insufficient workers for the delay as he had only about 300 workers at the site, whereas more than 1,000 workers are needed.

“The structure is almost there. Now they need to do piping and other architectural works so they need more workers. They have tried Indonesian workers but not suitable, because the work now is more on architectural works that require the workers to be skilled.”

In view of this, Dr Jamilah said the contractor will be bringing in about 400 workers from China who will be arriving this week to work at the site.

“They (contractor) are waiting for the Labour Department to issue licence to employ. Once that is done, about 400 of them will be coming. So they hope with the increase in the number of workers, progress can be speeded up.”

She said the contractor was looking at December this year as the completion date of the hospital, but the Public Works Department (PWD), as the project implementer, did not approve the contractor’s application for second extension of time.

“Their (contractor) appeal for extension of time was not approved because PWD found that the reasons such as work delayed due to excessive rain could not be accepted.”

Despite that, Dr Jamilah said the contractor will still have to abide by the June, 2017 deadline, failing which they will be fined.

“We are really hoping that Petra Jaya Hospital will be completed soonest possible because we know Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) is more than congested and with this new hospital, we hope that it will help to decongest SGH.”

As for Sri Aman Hospital, Dr Jamilah said the changes in material for piling alone had caused the project which was supposed to be completed by Oct 25, 2018 to be delayed by five months.

“The Sri Aman hospital is already categorised as a ‘sick’ project like the Petra Jaya Hospital. When the delay is more than 20 per cent, it is considered as sick. They are supposed to reach 40 per cent (of completion) but now they are only about 20 per cent.”

She said based on the photos that the contractor produced during a meeting a few days ago, the piling and ground floor beam for all the blocks had been completed.

“Workers are also a problem for the contractor. At the moment they are running with 100 workers when they need the capacity of about 200 workers. So they promised to increase the number of workers as well.”

Dr Jamilah said once they have increased the number of workers, the activities and areas of work for the buildings can be diversified, enabling them to catch up with the delay.

As for the Lawas Hospital, Dr Jamilah said the project will be re-tendered as the previous contractor decided not to proceed with the project although earthwork had been completed, citing the ceiling price set by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) as too low.

“They will select the new contractor soon. Since the new hospital is using the old hospital site, we have to transfer the patients and services to somewhere else.”

She noted that the present Lawas and Sri Aman hospitals still provided medical services as usual while waiting for the new buildings to be completed.

Source:
courtesy of THE BORNEO POST

by Jonathan Chia

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