KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 7 — Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam denied today he was shielding a private medical support services company amid questions in the wake of six fatalities resulting from a fire at the Hospital Sultanah Aminah (HSA) last month.

He urged critics not to make assumptions but to wait for the full report from the authorities before demanding punitive action on anyone.

"I never made any statements defending the concessionaire... Medivest will be examined by an independent committee comprising of experts in the field to verify if it carried out its responsibilities accordingly," he said in his ministerial reply on 2017 Budget in Parliament.

He was responding to Tumpat MP Datuk Kamaruddin Jaafar, who wanted an explanation for reports that implied Subramaniam was defending Medivest.

Medivest Sdn Bhd is the company that was contracted to provide medical support services to HSA and over 20 other hospitals in other states.

The committee, Dr Subramaniam said, will also include personnel from the Works Department, the Workers' Safety and Health Institute (NIOSH) and the Fire and Rescue Department.

Prior to this, Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong had also raised similar concerns in the Dewan Rakyat when he asked if Medivest’s services would be suspended pending investigations.

Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahya had earlier said that 21 other hospitals — six in Negri Sembilan, three in Malacca and 12 in Johor — were under Medivest.

In a supplementary question, Kapar MP G. Manivannan asked if the ministry will consider shifting intensive care unit wards to the ground floor of a hospital.

He said this because the six victims who perished in the HSA incident were ICU patients in wards that were located on the higher levels of the hospital.

Dr Subramaniam replied that approval of a hospital's structure must follow strict procedure, which, among others, made it mandatory to place ICU wards on higher levels.

"Although, ideally, it would seem better to keep the ICU on the ground floor, most hospitals place these wards on the higher floors for safety purposes," he said.