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TAWAU: Tawau Hospital is set to become a referral hospital on the east coast of Sabah for cardiology treatment soon, with the operation of the Invasive Cardiac Laboratory (ICL).

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the entire ecosystem, including the infrastructure for the ICL operations, had been identified and would be supplied immediately.

“The tender will be issued in a month or two. The ICL will provide services which are commonly referred to as cardiac treatment setups, angiograms, angioplasties and many more,” he told reporters after visiting the hospital, here, Thursday.

He said currently, heart attack and critical heart ailment patients on the east coast of Sabah have to be referred to treatment centres in Kota Kinabalu, resulting in delayed treatment and increased risk of complications.

“The Health Ministry is confident that with the operation of the ICL, we can reduce the time required for door to ECG to less than 10 minutes.

“In addition, the door-to-balloon procedure time or angioplasty, if possible, we want to reduce it to less than 90 minutes. This ICL is a very good, very fast cardiology service that is eagerly awaited by the entire Sabah population, particularly those on the east coast,” he added.

Meanwhile, Dzulkefly expressed his appreciation for the efforts of Persatuan Jalinan Kasih Harapan Rakyat Sabah, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), for its initiative in helping to send medicines from the Merotai Besar Health Clinic in Kalabakan to patients’ homes.

“We have launched a very good programme with this NGO, which provides support to the Health Ministry, whereby the volunteer NGO will send medicines directly to the patient’s house by motorcycle,

“They become facilitators to the ministry to provide the best services to the people. Previously, we collaborated with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to use drones to send the medicines. But, in Merotai Besar, we have volunteers who use motorcycles to deliver them,” he said.

Dzulkefly’s three-day intensive tour of 22 health facilities in six districts in Sabah ended Thursday.