Health Ministry to charge for parking at hospitals - Dr Hilmi

The Ministry of Health has decided to charge for parking at hospitals in the central zone of the peninsular to avoid abuse of parking areas, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya said the ministry is offering an open tender to interested companies to manage the hospital parking on a temporary basis at a rate to be fixed by the ministry.

This is to avoid irrelevant quarters from using the parking facility provided at hospitals, he added.

He was replying to a supplementary question from Datuk Wan Mohammad Khair-il Anuar Wan Ahmad (BN-Kuala Kangsar) on car parks in hospitals being used by those not involved with the day to day affairs of the hospital.

Dr Hilmi said the ministry would issue tender to increase the number of parking lots in hospitals nationwide.

Earlier, to the original question by Julian Tan Kok Ping (DAP-Stampin) on Sarawak General Hospital (SGH), Dr Hilmi said the ministry was planning to build a Daycare block, a pathology block and a multi-storey car park there.

"The Daycare block will comprise seven operating theaters, four endoscopy rooms, as well as wards," he added.

He said the multi-level parking block would have 1,750 parking lots and would also involve the construction of a medi-hotel with 160 rooms.

The construction of car park project will be carried out under a public-private partnership programme at an estimated cost of RM351 million, he added.