Another Kk Hospital Postpones Surgeries This Time After A Burst Pipe

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Buckets of water gushed into the basement level of Queen Elizabeth Hospital II (HQE2) in Kota Kinabalu at about 11am, following a burst pipe.
This comes as sister hospital, Queen Elizabeth Hospital (HQE) suffered a severe power outage yesterday, forcing staff to manually ventilate patients, and transfer outpatients to HQE2 mid-surgery.
Staff had to use dustpans and makeshift tools to divert water which was pouring into the building from the ceiling, Malaysiakini learnt.
The hospital’s blood bank, pathology lab and mortuary are located in the basement area.
Confirming the incident in a statement, Sabah health director Dr Rose Nani Mudin said elective surgeries scheduled at HQE2 have been postponed.
Only emergency surgeries are proceeding while other services are running as usual.
She said the burst pipe had supplied water to the hospital's main tank and had affected the food unit and linen area. 
“Immediate steps have been taken by HQE2 and the concessionaire to install bypassing pipes and the situation is now under control.
“The water has been cleared while repairs are underway and are expected to be ready by 8pm,” she said in a statement.
“HQE2 and the Sabah Health Department are working hard to ensure this burst pipe problem is resolved and that healthcare services are not affected,” she said.
Operation theatres closed at HQE to ensure ICU has power
Earlier, she announced that the operation theatres at HQE are closed today and tomorrow as the power outage has yet to be fully resolved.
Power generator trucks seen outside the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu, SabahShe said the theatres are closed to ensure that the intensive care units have sufficient power supply.
A total of 28 elective surgeries scheduled for today have been postponed while emergency surgeries will be conducted at HQE2.
“At the moment, the concessionaire Sedafiat Sdn Bhd is still working to repair the damaged electrical cables so power supply can be restored,” she said in a statement this morning.
Yesterday, Malaysiakini reported that healthcare workers had to stop surgery midway and transfer two patients downstairs from HQE to HQE2, due to the power outage which first occurred around noon yesterday.
“One of them was halfway through an elective surgery and had to stop and be sent to HQE2 to complete it. Another one is very ill and needed surgery urgently.
“Both of them were brought down by stairs and both also require ICU after surgery,” the source told Malaysiakini.
Some health workers even resorted to manually ventilating their intubated patients using bag valve masks so they could continue breathing, while patients were treated in the dark using flashlights.
While ICUs are equipped with uninterruptible power supplies that could keep mechanical ventilators and other life support equipment running, the source said these have a limited lifespan because they run on batteries.
It is learnt that the outage was not caused by interruption of supply from Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd, but by faults within the internal system.
Rose Nani yesterday said SESB supplied three backup generators to supplement the hospital's own generators.
The incident was condemned by Kota Kinabalu MP Chan Foong Hin, who questioned how the state can allow such strategic assets to be undermined this way. - Mkini

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