SUBANG JAYA, March 16: Work on the much awaited Subang Jaya public health facility, said to be bigger than a community clinic and smaller than a full scale hospital, has yet to begin and is likely to take off only in 2025.
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Tender for the hospital work is expected to be made later this year and work will probably start next year and the hospital will be operational in 2027, after two and a half years, said Member of Parliament for Subang Wong Chen during a recent gathering at the USJ2 Rukun Tetangga community hall here.
He was responding to a query on when the proposed public hospital for the people of Subang Jaya will be ready. In March last year, Wong said work would likely begin later the year.
However there had been no signs of any work on the proposed site for the hospital or any update on what was happening to a public health facility set to serve a busy township.
The history of the proposed public hospital in Subang Jaya
The proposal for a public hospital in Subang Jaya, a satellite city of close to 500,000 population, is not new and reportedly began more than a decade ago. Hope was raised among the Subang Jaya folks following Wong’s announcement last year.
While a Klinik Kesihatan was set up in USJ1 earlier, it ceased operations during the Covid-19 pandemic, with word that it would reopen. Then an announcement came that the then Perikatan Nasional government had cancelled plans for the expansion of the USJ1 health clinic in August 2021.
On March 31st, 2022, Wong Chen and Subang Jaya state assemblywoman Michelle Ng sought an explanation on the government’s decision to cancel the USJ1 health clinic project.
High cost was cited as reason for cancelling the project, which had been approved under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) with a RM45 million allocation.
The then Health Minister said while the project was approved under the 12th Malaysian Plan, it had since been cancelled by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) on August 4, 2021 with the reason that the cost was too high at RM67.8 million compared with the original budget of RM45 million.
Wong said the reason given by the EPU in cancelling the project was not acceptable.
“If the project was originally approved for RM45 million, then the EPU must continue the project on the original cost of RM45 million. The higher budget of RM67.8 million requested by the Ministry of Health (MoH), should not be an excuse to cancel the project completely,” Wong was reported saying then.
He had also pointed out then there was not a single government clinic or hospital serving the people of Subang Jaya.
While the general and often inaccurate perception is that people of Subang Jaya can afford the many private hospitals in the area, the city also has urban poor and a significant aging population in its list.
Meanwhile, those who cannot afford the private clinics or hospitals go to the Klinik Kesihatan either in Puchong or Kelana Jaya. Some go to Shah Alam where there is a hospital and several government clinics or even travel to the KL Hospital.
–WE