Teng Mee Hieng
KAPIT (June 8): A local Democratic Action Party (DAP) man has called upon all the ‘YBs’ (elected people’s representatives) from this division to jointly set up a fund for Kapit Hospital.
In highlighting this, DAP Sungai Kapit branch chairman Teng Mee Hieng said these representatives could allocate parts of their annual Minor Rural Project (MRP) grants to the hospital for the purpose of purchasing personal protective equipment (PPE) for the medical and healthcare workers, as well as enhancing other facilities there.
For the record, Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing is the assemblyman for Baleh, while Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Dato Sri Alexander Nanta Linggi and Datuk Wilson Ugak Kumbong are the respective Kapit and Hulu Rajang MPs.
Other assemblymen are Assistant Minister of Utilities(Rural Electricity) Datuk Liwan Lagang (Belaga), Dato Sri Ambrose Blikau Enturan (Katibas), Wilson Nyabong Ijang (Pelagus), Jefferson Jamit Unyat (Bukit Goram) and Kennedy Chukpai Ugon (Murum).
In this regard, Teng remarked: “In the whole of Kapit, there’s only one district hospital with 134 beds. Roughly, we have 115,000 people here. Patients from near and far come to Kapit Hosptial to receive treatment.
“Sadly, this hospital is not very well-equipped, which is a challenge during this time of Covid-19 pandemic. The hospital lacks the fund to purchase key medical equipment such as the ECG (electrocardiogram), incubators, thermometers, etc.”
Teng said the hospital’s application for these facilities to the Ministry of Health took a long time to be processed due to bureaucratic red tapes.
In this regard, he also pointed out that since the Covid-19 outbreak in March last year, various local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and charity bodies had come and made contributions to Kapit Hospital towards enhancing its medical and healthcare services.
“However, it’s still insufficient because the NGOs could only help so much,” he added.