Sungai Bakap Hospital needs to be replaced: Penang lawmakers

NIBONG TEBAL: Two Penang government lawmakers have told the federal government to build a new hospital to replace the Sungai Bakap Hospital here to better serve the people.
Sungai Bakap assemblyman Datuk Maktar Shapee said the current facility was some 50 years old and was sorely in need of improvement.
He said the equipment may have become outdated due to time and so a new hospital was required.
He noted the hospital now served patients not only within his constituency but also those from Jawi, Kedah and Perak.
"A new hospital is a must to replace the one we have now," he said in a press conference today with Jawi assemblyman Soon Lip Chee.
Soon also made the same call saying he received complaints from patients and residents regarding the condition of the hospital.
He said the public needed good and fully equipped general hospitals especially those in the lower income group cannot afford private healthcare.
"It is time for the government to upgrade the hospital facilities, it will be even better if a new one is built," he added.
When met at the hospital later, a patient who only wanted to be known as Subra said the hospital looked the same as when he was a child.
"This is an old hospital, I think it is time for the federal government to build a new one," he said as he felt the current one was already congested.
theSun is trying to reach Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya for comment at time of writing.
Checks on the hospital website showed the facility was established in 1891 on a 4.2ha plot here.
The hospital was setup to treat tuberculosis patients and was a place to treat recovering drug addicts in the 1970s.