SEPANG, June 7 – Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has reiterated his commitment to release an independent inquiry’s findings on the deadly 2016 fire at Sultanah Aminah Johor Bahru Hospital (HSA) upon approval from the ministry’s legal advisor.
“Yes, as I’ve stated previously, my intention is to publish the report. I’m just waiting for the ‘green light’ from our legal advisor – when there are no more claims from the next-of-kin of the victims in court.
“Once all of that has been cleared, I’m not sure of the latest status, we can publish the report,” Khairy told reporters after officiating the World Food Safety Day 2022 celebration here today.
Johor Menteri Besar Onn Hafiz Ghazi last week tweeted about road repair works at HSA and the Health Ministry’s (MOH) application to the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) for allocations to do electrical repairs at the hospital – six years after the 2016 fire that killed six patients.
The independent investigation headed by former Court of Appeal judge Mohd Hishamudin Yunus into the deadly 2016 blaze at HSA revealed that the public health care facility had been operating for years without a fire certificate since 2002.
A total of six patients were killed in the fire tragedy on October 25, 2016 at the MOH hospital’s south intensive care unit (ICU) ward.
The inquiry found that none of the south ICU staff had undergone any training in fire drills or emergency evacuation before the 2016 fire disaster, according to reportage by CodeBlue that sighted the report.
