Four HSA surgery rooms closed due to fire

JOHOR BARU: Four surgery rooms at the Sultanah Aminah Hospital (HSA) here were forced to close down after a machine sealer in the packing room caught fire on Saturday afternoon.
The packing room is located at the back of the operation hall.
The Fire and Rescue Department was alerted after a nurse saw the fire around 3.30pm yesterday.
A fire engine rushed to the scene and put out the blaze by 4pm.
State Health, Environment, Education and Information committee chairman Datuk Ayub Rahmat said four surgery rooms needed to be closed temporarily for safety and investigation purposes.
“All surgery rooms resumed operations this morning,” he said today.
He added the fire did not affect any planned surgeries because there were other machine sealers and surgery rooms still available for use.
“No casualties were reported in the incident," Ayub said.
The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.
A machine sealer deals with packing all surgery utensils before sending it to the Central Sterilisation Service Unit for sterilising.
This is the third incident to affect HSA in the last one year.
On Sept 6, the ceiling of the food counseling counter at the Mahmoodiah Health Clinic which is located in the HAS area collapsed due to poor structure.
On Oct 25, last year, a fire at its intensive care unit resulted in the death of six patients.
Earlier this month, the hospital was in the spotlight after a Singapore news portal claimed it had demanded payment first from a Singaporean accident victim before providing treatment.
The news portal subsequently withdrew the article and apologised to the hospital.