THE plan to relocate the National Referral Hospital will not be forthcoming this year as the government has failed to allocate funds for the important development.

Even the budget for health and medical service programmes this year is less compared to previous years.

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Medical Service Dr Tenneth Dalipanda said the Ministry’s budget for 2017 is around 29 million – a subtraction of 2 million compared to 31 million the ministry normally receives from the government for its operations in the previous years.

He said the budget allocation is unfit for the much promoted plan to relocate the National Referral Hospital as the relocation plan needs substantial amount of money to carry out.

Dr Dalipanda said the relocation of NRH is one of DCCG’s policy priority areas and that the Ministry is suggesting a separate budget for the relocation of National Referral Hospital to help maintain the ministry’s reduced development budget.

“It is now time for the hospital to be relocated as the size is unfit for the increasing population and location proved vulnerable to climate change,” he said.

Dr Dalipanda adds that the current size and environment of the hospital sees other services that needs improvement.

He said the ministry has drawn up plans in preparation for the project while waiting for the government to give the green light to compliment the ministry with extra budget for the relocation plan.