Sabah hospital forced to transfer patients after power outage

 

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital lit up by electricity supplied by mobile generators tonight. (Sabah health department Facebook pic)

KOTA KINABALU: The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH1) here was forced to transfer patients to QEH2 following a power outage since this morning.

Sabah health director Dr Rose Nani Mudin said the 11.54am power cut affected the hospital’s twin towers, the specialist clinics and the old medical wing.

“Throughout the blackout, two sets of backup generators were used to supply power to the affected parts of the hospital,” she said in a statement.

She also said patients who had to undergo an operation were transferred to QEH2.

“As of 8pm, only the operating theatres were without power.”

The state utility company, Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB), was still fixing the power cables she added.

Earlier today, The Star reported that patients were being treated in the dark “with medical staff using either flashlights or handphone lights to move around”.

According to the daily, certain areas of the hospital had power supply restored at around 4.40pm.

It also quoted an SESB official as saying that the outage was due to problems “within the hospital itself”. - FMT