Saturday, January 11, 2014

Put off elective surgery, says dept

BY LOH FOON FONG

PETALING JAYA: Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the Selangor Health Department has recommended the re-scheduling of non-life threatening elective surgery at the Sungai Buloh Hospital, which has been hit by an air-conditioning malfunction.

“In cases when there is a need, arrangements will be made to refer emergency cases to nearby hospitals,” he said.
Dr Noor Hisham said Radicare (M) Sdn Bhd was undertaking repairs and the installation a new uninterruptible power system (UPS).
He said the company would also bring in temporary portable UPS units to enable five more OTs to be used by next week.
“This will help ease the current shortage of OTs until all repair works are completed between two or three weeks,” he said.
Dr Noor Hisham said the fire and Rescue Department was still investigating the cause of a blaze which affected two units of high capacity 60 kVa UPS of the hospital.
Selangor State Health director Datuk Dr Azman Abu Bakar said the Sungai Buloh Hospital would work closely with the Serdang Hospital, Ampang Hospital, Selayang Hospital, Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital and the Kajang Hospital on the arrangements of patient referrals.
“In the event it is still not adequate, we will call Kuala Lumpur Hospital for back-up,” he added.

Dr Azman refuted a news report that a Radicare staff had accidentally cut off some wires resulting in the shutting down of six day-care OTs.
He said that the electricity supply was switched off temporarily to enable Radicare engineers to assess the extent of damage caused by a short circuit in the 12 main OTs.
“There was also no negligence resulting in a shutdown of the six daycare OTs as alleged,” he said.
On the earlier problem of waste disposal affecting five hospitals in the state, he said 95% was already cleared by yesterday afternoon.
He said the problem occurred in the larger hospitals because the new sub-contractor lacked the manpower to handle the volume.
Radicare (M) Sdn Bhd public relations and communications manager Nurul Huda Kamarullul Arifin said the new sub-contractor, Alam Bersih, took over the job from previous sub-contractor Harta Maintenance Sdn Bhd on Jan 1 but could not cope with the workload in the major hospitals.

Related story: 
Sg Buloh docs losing their patience

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