KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry is in the final stages of declassifying and releasing the independent report on the 2016 Sultanah Aminah Hospital fire tragedy, which claimed six lives.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the ministry would also issue a statement outlining measures drawn up to prevent similar incidents at healthcare facilities.
“I want to assure you that we will be issuing a statement on the matter, together with the mitigation measures that we have proposed and developed to prevent similar incidents from happening again, particularly at our facilities,” he said.
Dzulkefly was speaking at a press conference after launching the national-level 2026 World Mental Health Day celebration on Sunday (Oct 25).
He said the ministry's legal advisers were finalising the document before it could be made public, adding that previous delays were partly due to court proceedings related to the case.
“Our legal advisers are currently in the final stages of tying up loose ends and fine-tuning the document before it can be made public,” he said.
There have been renewed calls for the government to release the independent inquiry report into the fire, which broke out at the hospital in Johor Baru in October 2016.
The inquiry's chairman, current Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) chairman Tan Sri Mohd Hishamudin Yunus, and health advocates have urged the ministry to publish the findings, noting that the Cabinet had declassified the report in 2019.
They said the inquiry's safety recommendations should be shared with the healthcare sector to help prevent similar tragedies, particularly as all civil suits brought by the victims' families have since been settled.
