Hospital canteen closed over poisoning

The Sarawak health authorities have issued an immediate directive to a food caterer to close down its operations at the Miri Hospital canteen after it was found to have sold unhygienic food that resulted in mass food poisoning.
Investigations revealed that the caterer had sourced the food elsewhere and then brought it to the hospital canteen for patients, hospital staff and the public.
Under the contract agreement, the caterer was supposed to cook the food in the hospital canteen instead of sourcing it from third parties.
The authorities are still investigating where the caterer sourced the food from.
Seventeen trainee nurses were down with food poisoning two days ago, leading state Health Department divisional medical officer for Miri Dr Faizul Mansor to issue the directive yesterday.
Miri Hospital director Dr Devi Uma confirmed that the directive had been received.
On Wednesday, the trainee nurses suffered stomach problems and vomited after consuming food from the canteen, which is managed by the caterer on a contract basis. They have since recovered.
Dr Uma stressed that the hospital premises, including the canteen and kitchen, was very clean.
Following investigations by health department inspectors yesterday, the directive to stop operations was signed and delivered to the manager of the catering company.
Miri Hospital is the biggest public hospital in northern Sarawak.
State deputy health director Dr Andrew Kiyu, when contacted in Kuching, said the headquarters had delegated the authority to divisional officers to issue shutdown directives whenever they see fit as part of efforts to clamp down on errant food providers.
Source