MELAKA, June 3 — Patients were seen being transferred by the stairs at Melaka Hospital here in a viral video following a breakdown of the lift in Block F of the hospital yesterday.

State Health, Human Resources and Unity Committee chairman Ngwe Hee Sem said the lift failure caused access to some wards in the hospital to be limited and patients had to be transferred to other wards.

"The viral video shows the process of transferring patients who are on the fourth-floor ward to the third floor by using the stairs due to a lift service disruption at Block F of Melaka Hospital.

"The transferring of patients via stairs was carried out based on the urgency and continuity of treatment of critical patients,” he said in a statement here today.

He said the transferring of the patients was done with close monitoring by the nurses and ward management staff and patients were transferred safely without any complications.

Therefore, he said, all parties are requested not to make baseless speculations because it can cause panic among patients.

In the meantime, Ngwe said Melaka Hospital is carrying out lift upgrading at several blocks of the hospital and throughout that period, the number of lifts in operation has been reduced to make way for the replacement of lifts.

He said the upgrading of lifts was divided into two phases, namely between October 2022 to next July for phase one while phase two will start next July to December this year.

Until yesterday, he said that two damaged lifts had been repaired and were working under the surveillance of Melaka Hospital.

Yesterday, a video went viral on social media showing a patient being carried down the stairs believed to have taken place at Melaka Hospital. — Bernama