JOHOR BAHRU: The Johor state health department has refuted claims on social media that lives were lost at Hospital Sultan Ismail (HSI) here due to a power outage at the hospital last night.
HSI director Dr Aman Rabu confirmed that there was a power supply disruption at 11.10pm yesterday, but clarified that “essential” power supply was fully functional through generators.
“The management would like to inform that there have been no deaths due to this power outage incident.
“Preliminary inspection showed that the ‘air circuit breaker’ had tripped. The cause of the disruption was identified and repair work has been carried out,” he said in a statement today.
Aman said the work continued until 9am today before normal power supply resumed by 9.30am, adding that the problem did not have any major implications on patients in the emergency department, the Covid-19 temporary treatment centre and other wards.
He said most Covid-19 patients in categories three, four and five at the hospital used oxygen outlets or cylinders that did not involve the use of electricity.
For other critical wards, such as the intensive care unit (ICU) and the neonatal ICU, the ventilator equipment used were connected directly to essential power outlets.
“The hospital’s management and the concessionnaire is also continuously monitoring the situation,” he said.
Earlier, a Facebook user claimed to have witnessed many patients at HSI dying due to the oxygen supply being cut off following the power outage at the hospital.