By Jerry Choong
SHAH ALAM, March 28 — The Sultan of Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah Alhaj has expressed his satisfaction with the Health Ministry’s efforts to construct and develop more new public hospitals in the state and the upgrading of existing district hospitals.
His Royal Highness thanked the ministry for adding new health facilities including new hospitals in Sepang and Kapar and for upgrading the hospitals in Banting, Kajang and Kuala Selangor.
“With the projection of Selangor’s population reaching seven million, His Royal Highness decreed that although the state has many private hospital networks, the existence of government health facilities is necessary for the benefit of the urban poor and middle-classes,” said the Selangor Royal Office in a Facebook post.
Sultan Sharafuddin also praised the ministry for creating specialist hospitals that focus on critical diseases such as the Invasive Cardiology Laboratory (ICL) in Serdang Hospital.
“His Royal Highness also hopes that responsible parties such as the Public Works Department will be able to reduce the bureaucratic red tape when it comes to issuing tenders to construct health facilities, so there are no delays in carrying out projects related to the continuity of health care for Selangor’s people,” it said.
Earlier today Sultan Sharafuddin visited Serdang Hospital’s ICL, where he was accompanied by Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin and Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
His Royal Highness spent nearly two hours at the hospital, and attended a briefing session by Khairy on the development of Selangor’s state health facilities.
ICL is the main referral centre for national cardiology and cardiothoracic services, and is also active in providing emergency treatment to heart attack patients by pioneering the ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) networks.
The laboratory has also conducted more than 50,000 invasive procedures including angiogram and angioplasty, implantation of pacemaker, electrophysiology procedure, and structural heart disease.
