KAPIT: Bukit Goram State Assemblyman, Jefferson Jamit Unyat, had a hectic weekend here (Friday to Sunday) – meeting his constituents and inspecting the Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg’s “walkabout” projects.
One of the walkabout projects is the proposed Kapit Hospital road, the construction of which commenced last month.
The 300-metre RM3-million road behind Kapit Hospital will have a one-way traffic flow. Vehicles driving to the hospital will exit using a road between the hospital and SK Methodist.
The scopes of works include bulldozing a hill slope behind the hospital and using the earth to fill a valley between the hospital and the school. The proposed exit road is prepared by the Public Works Department.
Currently, the hospital, which is on a hill slope, has no proper exit road. Vehicles have to turn around where the existing road ends at the hospital’s mortuary hall. This is extremely dangerous in times of emergencies because the road is only about ten feet wide (3.048m).
For instance, in the event of a fire outbreak, it would be difficult to evacuate health workers, patients and vehicles from the hospital.
Jamit was accompanied during the inspection by the hospital director Dr Hii King Ching. Also present were councillors Liew Hui Hua and George Tang, Pemanca Yong Thu Fook, Penghulu Sia Shui Poh, Penghulu Wong Kie Ing, chairman of SUPP Kapit Dato’ Yong Hua Sying, staff of PBB Bukit Goram Services Centre namely, Douglas Chupong Jamit and Cochran Amos, and a work supervisor representing the contractor identified only as Siong.
Speaking to the press after the inspection Jamit said he was happy that work on the road had begun. He said the road was one of the projects announced by Johari during his visit here in April last year.
“To me it is very important that there is a through road as the existing road has a dead end,” said Jamit.
Last year, Jamit also allocated some fund to cement an open ground behind the nurses’ home for the hospital staff members to park their cars. The place is able to accommodate some twenty to thirty parking bays.
Kapit Hospital at Jalan Memoria, which was a gift from the Methodist Mission in 1958, has remained unchanged in terms of physical landscape.
The Ministry of Health Malaysia took over the hospital in 1973. At that time the Minister of Health was Tan Sri Lee Siew Yew who officiated at the handover. That day Kapit Mission Hospital formally became Kapit Hospital. The only new feature of the hospital is its four-storey concrete building erected by the government in the mid-1980s.
The original design of the 300-metre access road was for a single eight-foot-wide lane ending at the mortuary hall in the hospital compound.
After many years of futile attempts to fund the construction of the existing road, there was light at the end of the tunnel when earlier last year Deputy Chief Minister, Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing, who is Baleh assemblyman and Infrastructure Development and River Transport Minister, visited the hospital to check the rationale for the project.
During the visit, the director of the hospital, Dr Hii King Ching, briefed him on the issue and gave him a working paper on the proposed exit road.
In the same year, Bukit Goram assemblyman, Jefferson Jamit Unyat, who spoke in the State Legislative Assembly in July and November last year, urged the government to expedite the project.
