Khairy gets his hospital

Health Minister Liow tells Parliament that the project will start this May, fulfilling a promise the Rembau MP made in 2008

KUALA LUMPUR: The government will kick-start the Rembau District Hospital project in May to fulfil a promise made during the 2008 general election campaign.

Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai, who made the announcement in Parliament today, said the project would cost RM122.6 million.

Responding to a query by Kamarul Baharin Abbas (PKR-Teluk Kemang), he said funding problems had caused the delay.

“I must commend Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin for working hard for the project by constantly meeting me and Najib to get the project hastened,” he told the Dewan Rakyat.

Khairy, during his campaign for the Rembau seat, had promised voters that the government would build the hospital if they elected him.

Pundits are speculating that the next election will be held in the middle of this year.

Liow said the hospital would be built on a 45-acre site and would have the capacity for 76 beds and a surgery room. About a dozen doctors would be stationed there permanently, he added.

“We completed the tender process on March 27 and construction works will start by the end of May,” he said. “We expect the project to be completed in three years’ time.”