Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai (centre) chatting with a patient, Wok Kamid, 86, during his visit to the Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Hospital’s orthopaedic ward in Temerloh, Pahang, yesterday
Hefty electricity bills at government hospitals have prompted the authorities to seek help from the private sector.
The private sector has been asked to propose the most suitable solution that can help reduce the monthly bills.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said the company that could come up with the best solution would be given a percentage of the money saved by the hospitals.
He said the plan would not incur extra cost to the government as the company would get the money from the savings.
"This is how we can save as the power and water consumption at government hospitals is very high," he said after visiting Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Hospital (Hoshas) here yesterday.
Present were state Health committee chairman Datuk Hoh Khai Mun, Temerloh member of parliament Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, state Health director Dr Nooraini Baba and Hoshas director Datuk Dr Bahari Awang Ngah.
Citing an example, Liow said Hoshas electricity bill had reached RM650,000 a month.
He said from this year, the government had increased the number of scholarships for specialists from 400 to 800.
"This will help increase the number of specialists in the country which currently stands at only 2,500 compared with 30,000 ordinary doctors."
Liow said it was crucial to have more specialists so that they could be stationed in all hospitals.
"We also need more specialists due to the changing patterns of diseases that require highly-skilled medical professionals."
During his visit, Liow announced a RM100,000 allocation for Hoshas to purchase a chemistry analyser that could help reduce the time to analyse blood composition.
