SGH’s A&E Dept to be fully functional by end of the week’
Borneo Post Online, 18 February 2014
Dr Abdul Rahim (centre) being briefed by a medical officer in charge of the A&E Department at the Red Zone.
KUCHING: Efforts are underway to remove the smell of smoke at Sarawak General Hospital (SGH)’s Accident and Emergency Department (A&E Department) to enable it to be fully functional by the end of this week.
SGH director Dr Abdul Rahim Abdullah said his office was trying its best to get the A&E Department up and running at full steam quickly.
“If we want to make it fast, we’ll have to facilitate it. That’s why yesterday (Sunday), the concessionaire had replaced the filter, cleaned the air handling unit and ventilation system,” he said when met at his office yesterday.
Dr Abdul Rahim said the A&E Department’s operations had been shifted back to its original location, but the Red Zone (critical) and observation ward areas were still unusable as there were still smell of smoke and “a level of carbon monoxide” there.
“We are currently using the Yellow Zone (semi-critical) to function as red and yellow zones. We are still examining the red zone and observation ward because we are not taking risk due to the smell. Patients and my staff need a conducive environment.
“We don’t want them to feel uncomfortable.”
For the time being, he said, the A&E Department would give priority to handling yellow and red zone cases. For Green Zone (non-critical) cases, the doctors would give priority to Grade 1 cases.
“We will assess the patients’ condition and if their conditions are not serious, we will advise them to seek treatment at government clinics.
“Some government clinics are opened during office hours while some are opened until 9pm. 1Malaysia Clinics open until 10pm. The divisional health office will try to see whether the clinics can be opened later than their operating hours now.”
“If the clinics are closed and if they can wait, we will still cater to them. Of course, priority will be given to Grade 1 cases.”
In explaining the delay in dispersing the smell, he believed there might be some “stagnant area” in the hospital ventilation system that prevented the system from dispersing the smell as quickly as it should.
Dr Abdul Rahim said one way to facilitate the dispersal of the smoke would be to use blowers to blow off the remnants that are still trapped in the ventilation system, which is located in the ceiling.
“Initially, we thought the smell would disperse like in the other wards, but the red zone and observation ward are (located) at ‘a dead-end’ sort of situation.
“Probably because the smoke was very thick there during the fire and thus lingered longer. It deposited some of the material soot in the smoke.”
Dr Abdul Rahim said the state Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) would be helping to monitor the level of gases and hazardous materials in the hospital every day, adding that the hospital would also implement the solution as advised by the state Public Works Department (PWD).
