JOHOR BAHRU, July 20 —The government has allocated RM140 million to upgrade Hospital Sultanah Aminah (HSA), here, said Johor Health and Unity Committee chairman, Ling Tian Soon.

He said the upgrading works, including electrical and systems at the hospital to be implemented from next month, would take three years to complete.

"The upgrading works will be done in phases. The hospital operations will continue as usual, however, some patients will need to be transferred to other wards or hospitals to continue receiving treatment," he said at a press conference after attending a briefing on the HSA upgrading works, here, today.

Ling said included in the upgrading works at HSA would be the electricity supply from 6.6 kilovolts (kV) to 33 kV, the building’s automatic system, fire prevention and information technology.

Meanwhile, he said the rise in cases of respiratory tract infections such as influenza-like illness (ILI) and upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) among children, has caused the children's wards at hospitals in Johor to experience some congestion.

However, he said the bed utilisation rate at 13 government hospitals in the state was still under control at 76 per cent of the total of 5,307 beds.

He said bed utilisation for Covid-19 cases increased by 22 per cent for the 28th Epidemiology Week (ME) 2022, while Covid-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed utilisation rose to 17.5 per cent in the same week.

"Covid-19 patients requiring a ventilator increased from three during ME 27/2022 to six during ME 28/2022,” he added.

On the issue of parking at HSA, Ling said the concessionaire involved was expected to present its plan to add about 70 new parking lots next week.

Currently, HSA has 920 parking lots. — Bernama