Johor health and environment committee chairman Ling Tian Soon. -filepic
JOHOR BARU: The opening of Hospital Pasir Gudang (HPG), which was initially slated for this month, has been pushed back until next year due to technical issues, including the lack of healthcare workers.
Johor health and environment committee chairman Ling Tian Soon said the state government and Health Ministry had agreed to delay the hospital’s operations to avoid complications from running it without adequate staffing.
“Staffing is one of the main issues we currently face. If we insist on beginning operations with a lack of manpower, it will lead to many problems down the line,” he said in an interview.
He added that discussions would be held with the ministry soon to ensure the hospital could begin operating as planned.
Ling also gave an assurance that the hospital would not remain idle in the meantime, and would function as a support facility for Hospital Sultanah Aminah (HSA) and Hospital Sultan Ismail (HSI) in Johor Baru, two of the busiest hospitals in the state.
“HPG will serve as a partner to help ease patient load at the two hospitals.
“Some details are still being finalised and will be announced later,” he added.
The 304-bed HPG, located in Bandar Seri Alam was initially scheduled to begin operations in phases beginning Aug 1, before becoming fully operational by March 2026. The hospital is set to eventually have 14 specialist clinics.
In June, the hospital had appointed people to key positions such as director and deputy director and was in the process of filling more than 1,800 vacancies approved by the ministry, where over 270 positions were filled as of July 1.
On July 24, Bernama reported that Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said HPG would begin operations only after achieving at least 50% operational readiness.
He reportedly said his ministry must ensure sufficient basic facilities, medical equipment and manpower before the launch.
“I have agreed with the Johor Mentri Besar (Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi) that this is the minimum requirement,” he said, adding that recruitment for the hospital staff was expected to be completed by the end of this year or in the first quarter of 2026.
On July 22, Johor Regent Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim had expressed disappointment over the delay in opening, pointing out that the hospital had originally been slated to begin phased operations on Aug 1.
In a statement, he also highlighted other infrastructure issues in the state, such as disruptions to the autogate system at the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar and Kompleks Sultan Abu Bakar customs, immigration and quarantine complexes, as well as flood mitigation efforts and hospital developments.
He then called on the Federal Government to return 25% of income tax revenue derived from Johor to the state to ensure smoother implementation of such projects.
