Major Labuan hospital upgrade
Published on: Thursday, May 26, 2016
Labuan: The Labuan Nucleus Hospital has improved its service with additional facilities, equipment and specialists.Labuan Health Department Director Dr Ismail Ali said the improvement was a follow-up to the Government's call to upgrade the standards of medical services."We have improved our services since the last two years with additional medical facilities and specialists.
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We must not be complacent but continue to further improve the facilities to cater for the increasing demand," he said during a dialogue with the media at the hospital on Wednesday.He said the hospital currently has nine medical specialists serving in eight major specialist units, such as Anaesthesiology, Orthopaedic, Radiology, Paediatric, Emergency and Trauma, Medical (two), Obstetrics and Gynaecology and General Surgery.The hospital is now also equipped with a CT Scanner machine, 26 haemodialysis machines, stress test machine, echocardiogram, ultrasound, brain surgery instrument, children ventilator, bronchoscope, colonoscopy, funduscope (an instrument for examining the interior structures of the eye), pleuroscope (for diagnosis and therapy for pleural effusions), Holter machine (a wearable device that keeps track of heart rhythm), copolscopy, incubator (for premature children), infant warmer and lung function test."The additional instruments have enabled a reduction in the number of patients here to be referred to the hospital in mainland Sabah," Dr Ismail said.
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The hospital's radiologist, Dr Zaharuddin Harun, said since the installation of the Computed Tomography Scanner (CT Scanner) at the hospital in mid 2014, a total of 780 patients have undergone the CT scan so far this year compared to 380 patients last year. Dr Ismail said although the Labuan Nucleus Hospital is still a minor hospital, it has long been utilised by outstation patients (expatriates) and patients from outside Labuan such as Lawas and Limbang in Sarawak and Sipitang, Menumbok and Beaufort in Sabah.
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Medical specialist Dr Vinoth Kasi Rajan said a total of 443 patients had undergone the echo test last year. (Echo test is to look at the heart structure and check how well the heart is working.)To further improve the hospital's services, the Labuan Health Department has forwarded a proposal for additional two specialists - a psychiatrist and an optometrist."Currently we only have visiting optometrist, but very soon the optometrist will be permanently based in our hospital to serve the increasing number of cataract patients," he said.Dr Ismail also said the proposal to equip the hospital with an ambulance boat would eventually be materialised, as the Labuan Marine Department had agreed to hand over its operation boat for the purpose."We are working very hard to materialise it as that (sea transport) is the only cheaper cost of transfer we can think of. The cost for the transfer of a patient from Labuan to Menumbok is around RM6,000 per trip," he said, adding the proposed ambulance boat will help reduce the time of journey and cost.Labuan Hospital Director Dr Adnan Musa Balidran said the hospital is moving in tandem with the current and future medical needs.He said a comprehensive development plan is the pipeline to turn the hospital into a fully-equipped hospital with additional blocks for additional specialists and instruments.Dr Ismail said this was part of his department's long-term plan to turn the hospital into a major hospital with better facilities on par with other major hospitals in other states.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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