When patients have to sleep on the fl

NST: KOTA KINABALU: There was a time when patients slept on mattresses on the floor at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Complex maternity ward.
When the Luyang Hospital and the Likas Women and Children's Hospital opened more than five years ago, it helped ease the congestion.
But, now, it's back to what it was as patients outnumber beds at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital following the closure of the Tower Block due to safety reasons. There is a 250-bed deficit.
"It is not every day we are forced to ask patients to sleep on the floor but it happened recently," said a doctor at the hospital.
As a result of the closure of the Tower Block, one of the hospital's most important machines, the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) unit, cannot be used.
Also inaccessible are 250 beds, eight surgical wards, the intensive care unit, the forensics department and a pharmacy there.
The most recent setback was the temporary halting of the service elevator at the three-storey medical ward.
"That was about a week ago. We now have to put at least four workers on standby between the ground floor and third floor to carry patients on stretchers to their wards," the doctor said.
There are some 2,000 staff members at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, including 400 doctors.
Patients from all the district hospitals in the state, as well as in Labuan, Lawas and Limbang in Sarawak, are referred to specialist doctors at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital
"Some of these patients are referred to specialists in the peninsula."
Sabah Health director Dr Marzukhi Md Isa recently revealed that urgent cases were normally referred to hospitals in Kuala Lumpur or Penang.