KUALA LUMPUR, May 28 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) can seek funding for a Petaling Jaya (PJ) hospital even though the major infrastructure project isn’t included under the 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP), said Dzulkefly Ahmad.
The health minister explained that projects aren’t approved all at once for the five-year duration of a Malaysia Plan, but are divided into annual planning cycles like Rolling Plan 1 (RP1) or Rolling Plan 2 (RP2) to ensure relevance to current needs.
“The inclusion of new projects midway through the five-year plan can take place through the Rolling Plan (RP) mechanism. Under 13MP, government agencies do not need to wait until RMK-14 to introduce new projects,” Dzulkefly told CodeBlue today, using the Malay acronym for the 14th Malaysia Plan.
“In the context of PJ Hospital, the Ministry of Health (MOH) can apply for project approval and funding in the nearest Rolling Plan cycle (such as RP2 or RP3) once land/site matters are resolved.
“Given that the Selangor state government is now committed to expediting land matters for PJ Hospital, the project’s readiness constitutes a strong justification for approval in the next Rolling Plan.”
He expressed hopes that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim would announce land acquisition for PJ Hospital in Budget 2027, after which the project can receive funding allocation under RP3 for 2028.
When asked if the MOH needed to trade off other approved projects for PJ Hospital, since the hospital wasn’t listed under 13MP, Dzulkefly said trade-offs were unnecessary.
“PJ Hospital will be spelled out under RP on a yearly basis, so there’s no need for a trade off.”
A government source, however, said trade-offs for PJ Hospital must be made unless the Ministry of Finance (MOF) raises the 13MP ceiling allocation for the MOH. The 13MP passed by Parliament last September allocates RM40 billion for the health sector over five years.
The 13MP only lists five major hospital projects: Tuanku Jaafar 2 Seremban Hospital, Negeri Sembilan; Sultanah Aminah 2 Johor Bahru Hospital, Johor; North Cancer Centre, Sungai Petani, Kedah; Sabah Heart Centre in Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah; and Sarawak Cancer Centre.
Their inclusion in the Malaysia Plan means that MOF has already catered funding for these five projects and set the ceiling in terms of hospital projects under 13MP.
“MOF has already determined the ceiling for the ministries or overall budget for the government for RMK. This is critical in order for MOF to plan the funding for the projects, which is through borrowings,” the government source told CodeBlue on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorised to speak to the press.
“If there is no ceiling, that would mean that the sky is the limit as far as the borrowings are concerned and this will not be acceptable or sustainable for any government. Sovereign rating agencies would also not look at this favourably in terms of the fiscal sustainability of the government.”
He explained that development projects included in Malaysia Plans are divided into existing projects continuing from the previous RMK that will continue to be funded in the current RMK until its completion, as well as new projects suggested for the new RMK.
“Hence MOF will calculate how much it will cost to fund existing projects until they are completed, as well as to fund the new development projects, of which most are scheduled to be completed within the RMK.
“So for example, if a hospital would cost RM800 million, then MOF will allocate or divide the RM800 million into annual installments. This is because the first year may not need much as it only involves land acquisition matters, preparation for tender, and perhaps even preliminary works if the contractor manages to enter the project site (‘masuk tapak’) within the first year, which is highly unlikely.
“Then in the second year, MOF would allocate depending on the targeted phase of completion; this continues to the following year and so on until the hospital is completed.”
Dzulkefly told Malaysiakini yesterday that the MOH and the Selangor state government have identified a 6ha site in Taman Medan, which currently hosts a sports complex, to build a 500-bed hospital with 15 medical specialties like Ampang Hospital.
Amid talk of a snap general election, amending the 13MP to include a PJ general hospital is necessary to guide the government of the day to allocate funding for the multi-year project, although projects can still be cancelled despite inclusion in a Malaysia Plan, like the Maran Hospital project in Pahang.
Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari – who was under heavy criticism on X for saying high land costs are blocking plans for a general hospital – said in response to Dzulkefly’s statement that the identified location would enable construction of a vertical-design hospital without requiring an excessively large land area.
Dzulkefly’s announcement about a new general hospital for PJ, a large city with an 800,000 population size in Selangor, comes amid spending cuts of up to 10 per cent of the MOH’s 2026 budget, or RM4.65 billion, to help cover a soaring fuel subsidy bill.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is also finance minister, previously said the proposed health spending cuts targeted the scope of hospital projects.
People in low-income neighbourhoods have fewer opportunities for physical activity due to their living quarters, amid Malaysia’s non-communicable disease (NCD) crisis. The X Park PJ South complex in Taman Medan, the identified location for the PJ hospital, offers activities like pickleball, badminton, futsal, and golf, as well as a multi-purpose court.
Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy chief executive Azrul Mohd Khalib previously wrote that building a new general hospital in Petaling Jaya wasn’t a “game of SimCity”, saying a modern general hospital of around 1,000 beds wasn’t just a building, but a small township.
He also questioned how the government would fill staffing needs for a new general hospital amid widescale shortages of health care workers, noting that Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL) with 2,300 beds has a workforce of around 12,000 health care and administrative personnel.
Instead, Azrul suggested that the government lease a medium-sized private hospital in PJ and take over its entire operations as a public hospital.
