Dr Annuar Rapaee
SIBU (Oct 29): Dr Annuar Rapaee welcomes Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s announcement on the construction of rural clinics, especially in Sabah and Sarawak as it is a step in the right direction to address the healthcare needs of Sarawakians, especially the rural folk.
The Assistant Minister of Local Government and Housing, said he had brought up the importance of accessibility to healthcare which include three most important services and facilities for the rural health care clinics, namely laboratory and radiography testing facilities, as well as doctors during the tabling of 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) in the Parliament by Ismail Sabri in September.
“With the availability of radiography testing, x-ray can be conducted and a life-threatening illness can be detected early.”
Dr Annuar added construction of rural clinics in Sarawak will be more feasible compared to increasing hospitals’ beds capacity, due to the vastness of the state with a population widely spread out.
“Therefore, I welcome Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s announcement on the construction of rural clinics, especially in Sabah and Sarawak. People in rural areas including the pockets of population in the remote parts of Sarawak will be able to access to healthcare services,” said Dr Annuar.
The Nangka assemblyman disclosed that accessibility to healthcare with minimum services, equipped with three most important services and facilities for the rural health care clinics, as in his wish list for the National Budget 2022 to be tabled today.
During a zoom interview with the media last month, Dr Annuar said the government’s plan to increase the capacity of hospitals’ beds to meet the ratio of 2.06 beds per 1,000 population by 2025 under the third area of focus on improving the wellbeing of Keluarga Malaysia under the 12th Malaysia Plan, might not be feasible in Sarawak, being a vast state with population widely spread out.
On the doctors distribution in Sarawak, he admitted this has been unevenly distributed.
“In Kuching, the ratio is 1:620; Sibu (1:870), Sarikei (1:894), while the rest of the divisions are having a ratio of one to more than 1,000 people.
“If we were to have one doctor to a population of 500 in every division in Sarawak, we will need about another 3,000 doctors more. At the moment, (in Sarawak), we have 2,780 doctors including those in private medical facilities.
“The state government provides yearly scholarship to eligible recipients to pursue medicine at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), which is an important step to address some of the healthcare concerns faced by the state.
“The federal government, should be more proactive in addressing the healthcare needs of Sarawakians instead of depending on the state government alone. In my opinion, when dwelling on shared prosperity vision, healthcare services like that of education, is a major component that should be given key emphasis,” Dr Annuar pointed out.
He also revealed that currently 89 clinics or 31 per cent out of the 283 clinics in Sarawak still do not have the services of doctors.
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