FOR Works Minister Baru Bian, the most “shocking and pathetic sight” on his first official visit back home to Lawas last weekend was the condition of Long Sukang hospital.

Baru said the hospital was structurally unsafe, with the beams eaten by termites and some of the floorboards eaten through, too.

“There are signs warning people not to step on certain portions of the floor in case the boards give way,” he said today.

Baru said the hospital, 38km from Lawas town, was built by the people of Long Sukang “many years ago” on land that belonged to the villagers.

He said the land where the hospital was built had since been acquired by the federal government but there had been no allocation for its repair or maintenance.

The hospital serves some 1,000 people in Long Sukang and its surrounding villages.

Baru said it was critical that a new hospital be built there as soon as possible.

“The people of Lawas have been deprived for many years of access to proper and adequate healthcare.

“I am determined to remedy the situation in collaboration with the Health and Rural and Regional Development Ministries.”

The focus of his trip, however, was to look into delays in the completion of Lawas Hospital, which is far behind schedule.

Construction of the hospital began in 2011 and was scheduled for completion in 2016.

Baru said the delay had caused much hardship to the people and even the loss of loved ones.

The district in northern Sarawak, also named Lawas, is hemmed in to the north by Sabah and to the south by Brunei.

Critically ill patients in need of specialist treatment are either sent to Kota Kinabalu or Miri.

But Baru said some Lawas folk do not have passports and cannot be sent by road to Miri as they have to cross Brunei to get to the oil-refining town.

“Some patients sent to Kota Kinabalu reported being questioned on why they had to go to another state for treatment.

“In extreme emergencies, the families can request helicopter service, but the cost of that is RM7,000 per hour.

“Needless to say, some patients who could have been saved died as a result of this problem, and to me, this is unacceptable in this day and age.” 

Presently, the Lawas “hospital” is housed in rented shoplots and one “old building” that Baru said was used as a ward.

The Lawas clinic is also operating out of a rented shoplot, while construction of the new hospital is being carried out. – August 3, 2018.