PHUKET may have a new public hospital within a year. Phuket OrBorJor President Paiboon Upatising yesterday signed a budget approval for 330 million baht to reconstruct an abandoned hospital on Koh Siray.

The new hospital will be under the provincial administration's management.

The two-building complex has been empty since Phya Thai hospital closed its doors in 2000.

Khun Paiboon told Phuketwan that the OrBorJor is inviting construction companies to tender a bid for the project.

The plan calls for a 190-bed hospital with modern facilities and a dormitory for medical staff.

The OrBorJor hopes to have the hospital up and running by the end of this year.

The hospital has been a source of political wrangling ever since former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra granted approval for a plan to reopen the facility in 2004.

In August 2006, former OrBorJor President Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr slammed the Governor of Phuket at the time, Udomsak Uswarangkura, for causing the project to stall by refusing to approve the OrBorJor's 215-million-baht bank loan application.

At the same time, the Governor ordered a special committee to review the project, citing concerns over the lack of a clear management plan.

After defeating Khun Anchalee in a landslide election last year, OrBorJor President Paiboon announced he was committed to completing the hospital project, since 500 million baht had already been invested by the OrBorJor.

Phuket's three public hospitals face chronic staff and resource shortages as the island's public health care investment has failed to match its population growth.