The private sector must cater to the need for quality healthcare services and additional medical infrastructure in Sarawak, via investment initiatives in the healthcare industry, to supplement those facilities provided by the government.

Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said, with the state's population expected to double over the next 20 years, including Kuching City's current population of 700,000, and growing per capita income, the people's expectation for good healthcare services and facilities was also rising.

"Encouraging the private sector to invest in healthcare is the right thing to do. It gives the public a choice and assists the government in investing in this industry," he said when declaring open the RM80-million Borneo Medical Centre, Tuesday.

It is the 10th private medical centre to be set up in Sarawak since independence, 50 years ago.

He lauded the 'pioneering spirit' of the group of mainly local entrepreneurial doctors to set up the 100-bed hospital, which also provided new secondary and tertiary disciplines to Sarawak's private healthcare.

On the government's part, Abdul Taib said, the new 300-bed public hospital currently built in Petrajaya here, would help relieve the overcrowded Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) here and cater to Kuching's growing population once it was completed by 2016.

He said there was also a need to close the urban-rural gap in Sarawak, which required the deployment of the flying doctor service to the interior, due to the scattered population of 5,000 villages and longhouses, as well as communication problem.

Due to the state's vastness, he said, the 'One Hospital, One District' programme was difficult to implement at present, even though about 85 per cent of the total populace was now being provided with basic infrastructure, including water and electricity supply.

Despite the big investment by the federal government, which spent about five per cent of its gross domestic product on health care, with a budget of RM19.3 billion for this year, Abdul Taib noted that public healthcare still needed improvement.

He cited the SGH which had 931 beds at present, the biggest in Sarawak with almost 100 per cent occupancy rate.