Hospital needs ‘treatment’

Badly hit: A recent downpour inundated a section of the geriatric ward at Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah in Klang.

KLANG: The Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah (HTAR) here is in need of “urgent treatment” itself.

Due to frequent flash floods, a retention pond is badly needed there. A recent downpour inundated a section of the geriatric ward.

The ward is on a lower area of the sprawling 25ha hospital grounds.

HTAR director Dr Ding Lay Ming said a retention pond next to the ward would help overcome the problem in the short term.

“We need a retention pond so that rainwater will flow there,’’ she said in an interview at the hospital.

Dr Ding said the retention pond was proposed during a meeting with the State Public Works Department, Drainage and Irrigation Department and Health Department in February last year.

The three-storey ward was built in 1967, and is one of the earliest HTAR buildings set up.

Dr Ding said the rainfall was so intense that the flood waters rose quickly.

She said swift action by doctors, nurses and other staff members got everything under control and the ward was cleared by 6pm.

“No patient or equipment was affected,” she added.

Hospital supervisor C. Mohan said the hospital had been piling up sandbags near its entrance since last October.

He said the weather got worse and the sandbags could not stop the flood waters from seeping through on Sunday.

Mohan, who has been with HTAR for about 30 years, claimed that the poor design and maintenance of a monsoon drain next to the hospital also contributed to the flash floods.