RIPAS Hospital expanding 2011-2013 project

The parking area near the old mortuary will be the site of the new Women's & Children Building

The proposed New building occupying the old parking place,
N.B. this is the 2009 proposal by Arkitek Idris

Proposed new A&E Department with new multi-level parking lots and Administrative Building
for more detailed info pls log-in to our previous link
http://doctorsbrunei.blogspot.com/2010/02/proposed-new-women-children-hospital.html

4th Floor Renovation in progress

Expected date of completion for the 4th floor renovation

Ministry of Health under the new administration is rapidly undergoing changes both in the infrastructure as well as services to cater for the growing demand and needs of the Brunei population. One of the major projects that will undertake is the New Women and Children Building that was suppose to lift off last year but due to some unforseen circumstances the project had to be delayed till now.

This brand new nine-storey women and children hospital is scheduled to begin construction in the Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha (Ripas) Hospital complex soon by the middle of this year to cater to the increasing needs and demands of the Sultanate. "The new hospital will also have two basements for parking which will help with the congestion as it will help ease traffic circulation," said M Jamarludeen Hj M Hussein, a representative from Arkitek Idris.

The new hospital, which is scheduled for completion 30 months after tender, will house a clinic on its ground floor, delivery and neonatal wards on the first and second floor respectively while the third floor will be used as administrative offices for CEO.

The remaining floors will cater to women and children wards which include services such as Obstetrics, Paediatrics and Gynaecology.

To address the shortages of parking spaces and the increase in traffic flow during the construction periods, MoH has introduced the RIPAS Hospital Link Shuttle Bus. For those visiting or seeking treatment from the hospital,can now park their car at the parking lot close to the Jame' 'Asr Hassanal Bolkiah mosque, and from there take the bus up to Outpatient lobby. Four buses from Ripas and two additional buses from JKR have been allocated and can hold a capacity of up to 29 people and will stop by the designated checkpoints every 10 to 15 minutes.

Shuttle bus pick up and parking space new the Jame' Asr mosque

Doctor's Mess No more.... for now..

For those familiar with the Doctors Mess, it was located on the 4th floor of the E block RIPAS hospital. Since it first opened in 2004 by then DGMS Dr Hj Affendy, the President was Dr Abdul Rashid and has undergone several refurbishments and upgrades. It was then led by Dr Chong CL followed by Dr Chua HB, Dr Azmi and now Dr Munir. Various activities have been organized in the past at this mess, including clinical teaching, Pool tournament, Organizing Charity bowling tournaments, Video Shooting of Doc Mess Idol (hehe.. that was fun... especially when Dr William Chong was auditioned... priceless video clip that was) and many more.

We have also had many famous important visitors including, His Majesty the Sultan dan Yang Di Pertuan Negara Brunei Darussalam, The current Malaysian Queen, and our previous minister of Health YB Pehin Suyoi who kindly participated in our Pool Tournament.

Otherwise on a normal day, you may find during lunchtime our junior doctors gathering having take-away lunch packs, and catching up with day to day issues (work-related ofcourse ;) , or just socially interact, shooting some pools, or even just catching a nap before an afternoon clinic on one of the nice sofas.

What has happened to it now? Well the 4th floor where it resides is currently undergoing renovation to build another floor of wards. The Medical Library has been shifted to the ground floor of the Old Nurses building (beside the specialists building) and the Doctor's Mess have been relocated (temporarily we hope..) to the ground floor of Ehsan Apartments, which is currently majorly underused due to the distance it is away from everything else.

So the plan will be to build two wards, one will be a 24 bedded ward housing both male and female orthopaedic patients, and the other ward will be a new 1st Class ward. The 4th floor will also be completely enclosed so there will no longer be open air balconies, instead fully air-conditioned alleys. Meanwhile in between the wards the New Doctors Mess will be built, which is slightly smaller than the previous one and will no longer have on-call rooms like they used to. Work is actively currently under progress and is estimated to last till... further notice.

We hope the work will finish as soon as possible so that we can have our doctors mess back again. I think a lot of people underestimate how important it is to have a place where the doctors can just relax and hang out and perhaps socialize with colleagues and friends. So we hope the doctors mess culture will continue and the dedicated space for it will be kept and maintained for the use of our future generation of doctors.

2009/2010 Doctors Mess team
after the Video Shoot of MME

2008/2009 Doctors Mess Team
after organizing Charity Bowling Tournament


2007/2008 Doctors Mess Team taking picture with
Honourable Minister of Health YB Pehin Suyoi, Hounourable Deputy Minister YB Pehin Hazair
DGMS (Dr Hj Affendy) and our CEO Dr Hjh Norlila
during Pool Tournament

Doctors Mess 'transformed' awaiting Her Majesty Malaysian Queen visit

Local Bruneian Doctors at RIPAS Hospital

As requested by one of our readers, here are the compiled number of local doctors working at RIPAS hospital as of March 2011.

Disclaimer:
These are not official figures from the MoH or PGATB database, but are information kindly collected from our peers and colleagues working here at RIPAS Hospital. The table figures also does not take into account the doctors who have not returned back to Brunei yet, and the junior doctors in their Specialty rotation who have not decided on a specialty yet and those still doing the Foundation year training programme.

In summary there are approximately 30 local specialists in Brunei, but as you can tell there is still a large void in local talents that needs to be filled up. Around 30+ local trainees are currently undergoing trainee abroad mainly in Singapore, and a few others scattered in the UK, Australia, Malaysia and Germany, and about 27 still awaiting to be trained.

Hopefully this information will be useful to our local boys and girls out there in planning for their specialty training. Word of advice would be to try and secure specialty training whilst you are still abroad if you have already decided what you want to do. Trying to go from Brunei will be difficult because we are running out of training places even in Spore, and currently we only recognize UK, Spore, Australia and U.S. 'Advance level Training' and the others are case by case basis for e.g. Germany. If you have manage to secure a place yourself abroad, please let PGATB know to find out if that institution will be recognized when you want come back home.

The incentive to be trained as a specialist would be the new scheme of service which start Consultant's pay at $12,000 (including On-call allowances and M allowance) and up till $18,000. Currently we are still on the Old Scheme of Service which we are still awaiting to be migration. The details of the new scheme is still sketchy, and no official memo have been released as yet from our ministry, but we will keep you posted of any further progress.