DHAKA, Nov 18 — Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has hailed the opening of a specialised hospital and nursing college here today as a testament to the warm and friendly ties between Malaysia and Bangladesh.

He said the Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib Memorial KPJ Specialised Hospital and Nursing College was made possible through the strong collaboration between the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Memorial Trust, a trust under Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s family, and Malaysian healthcare provider KPJ Healthcare Bhd.  

“Malaysia and Bangladesh have always enjoyed warm and friendly relations, and I am delighted to see our ties continue to improve,” Najib said at the inaugural ceremony for the hospital.  

Also present were Najib’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman and KPJ Healthcare director and corporate advisor Datin Siti Saadiah Sheikh Bakir. 

Najib said that through the joint undertaking with KPJ Healthcare, the 250-bed hospital would immediately have a qualified and experienced team of hospital managers in place.

He said the hospital would offer first-class healthcare services, providing Bangladeshis, including from among the poor, with greater access to international standards of treatment. 

“I was informed that 30 per cent of the patients will be from the poor and they will be given a special rate,” he said.  

Najib said the hospital would support Bangladesh’s efforts to provide a safety net for the poor as well as services for the disabled, and help improve maternal and child healthcare. 

Apart from healthcare services, he said, the hospital would also house a 50-seat nursing college that would support Bangladesh’s efforts to train more healthcare professionals.

KPJ Healthcare, with a 33-year track record in Malaysia, has helped to transform Malaysia’s private healthcare industry. It currently operates 23 hospitals in Malaysia, two in Indonesia and one in Thailand.  

In 2011, KPJ Healthcare was the first private healthcare organisation approved by the Ministry of Higher Education to set up its own medical school, providing specialist-training programmes for doctors from across Malaysia. 

Earlier, Najib and Hasina witnessed the handing over of a replica of the hospital by the trust secretary, Sheikh Hafizur Rahman, to KPJ Healthcare president and managing director Amiruddin Abdul Satar as a symbolic gesture of the transfer of the hospital operation to the Malaysian healthcare service provider. 

Meanwhile, Hasina, who is also the president of the trust, said the hospital would be a model for public-private partnership initiatives in Bangladesh.

She said that apart from ensuring world-class medical services at an affordable cost and creating healthy competition among healthcare service providers in Bangladesh, the hospital would help produce skilled physicians while making available standard healthcare in the country. 

Built on 2.42 hectares at a cost of 2.15 billion Bangladeshi taka (about RM88.19 million), the hospital would also cater to the need for better health services for industrial workers, including those from the garment industries located near it, she said. — Bernama