Another Hospital Disgrace

It looks like the standard operating procedure of those in charge to delay hospital projects.

First there was the new hospital in JB that could not commence operations for months as it had become infected with fungus and now this latest case in Alor Star.

It is interesting to note that both hospitals are named after the state royalty and to me it seems like a gross insult to the royal families when such prestigeous projects are delayed for such mundane excuses.

The latest story mentions the following extra works:

*A nursing college
*Additional wards
*A forensic laboratory

No doubt these will improve facilities for the public but to me these changes should have been added on only with the proviso that the rest of the project is not delayed.

If one considers that the original project was supposed to have been completed in December 2003, it is now three years past the due date.

One can only wonder what type of project management techniques have been practised by the Works Ministry.

It should also be interesting to study details of the extra costs incurred with such project variations and I would imagine that the final costs have escalated beyond anyone's imagination.

Perhaps Pareto's principle would be a useful guess like "20% of additional works will incur 80% of additional costs"?