KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has instructed the Health Ministry to take speedy remedial action on the air-conditioning failure at Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan’s (HTAA) intensive care unit.
“The Health Ministry, Datuk Seri Dr S Subramaniam, (Datuk Dr) Noor Hisham Abdullah, please take immediate action and speed up reparation works as well as temporary measures to deal with this matter,” he wrote on his Facebook and Twitter accounts today.
Najib was responding to a report by The Star regarding the ordeal that patients at HTAA’s ICU unit had to endure as the air-conditioning in the hospital was on the fritz.
According to the report, the hospital staff had opened windows to allow in fresh air but mosquitoes and flies that bring along fatal infections became another issue – while reparation works would reportedly take 18 months.
Meanwhile, in an immediate response, Subramaniam has instructed Dr Noor Hisham to resolve the issue at once.
"A major part of the air-conditioning system broke down and needed an overhaul.
“However the repair works must be conducted in stages to ensure the hospital’s operations would not be interrupted," he said.
In another statement Noor Hisham said plans to replace the current air-conditioning system in the main block of HTAA are underway.
He also urged all relevant parties, in particular the Public Works Department and the Health Ministry’s development department, to deal with this challenge as an emergency or semi emergency situation in view of the urgency and the consequences of the matter.
“Although, I was told a tender advertisement was published on Nov 9, 2015 and the replacement work is expected to commence in March 2016 and will take 18 months to complete,” he said in a statement on his Facebook page yesterday.
“Due to the malfunction of the centralised air-conditioning system in the main block of HTAA, understandably many patients and staff alike feel uncomfortable and hence the quality of clinical services has been affected.”
On temporary measures adopted since last year, Dr Noor Hisham said five split air-conditioning units and two split air-conditioning units were installed at the Special Care Nursery and Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), respectively.
Aside from that, two portable air-conditioning units were put in place at the ICU.
Dr Noor Hisham said the hospital has proposed adding a further five split air-conditioning units in ICU and two split air-conditioning units with air curtains for PICU.
“The installation will be completed by this weekend,” he added.