GOMBAK: The person who stabbed a patient at Hospital Selayang is a psychiatric patient who was brought in by the police, says Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
“Before disinformation becomes viral, please be informed that the stabbing was committed by a psychiatric patient brought in by the police,” the Health director-general said yesterday.
Such incidents, he said, could happen anywhere and the Health Ministry would review its standard operating procedure (SOP) for patients with psychiatric disorders.
“We need to do that to safeguard our patients in emergency departments and our clinics,” he added.
In a statement, acting Selangor police chief Deputy Comm Datuk S. Sasikala Devi said the suspect was being held and treated at the hospital’s psychiatric ward.
“Witnesses saw the victim, aged 29, sitting on the floor, then the 22-year-old suspect stabbed at his waist with a knife,” she said, adding that investigation was being conducted under Section 326 of the Penal Code for causing grievous injury with a weapon.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa tweeted that she rushed to the hospital after the Parliament sitting to find out what had happened and get an explanation.
“The current status of the patient will be reported to the family from time to time,” she said in a tweet yesterday.
Singaporean daily The Straits Times reported on Tuesday that during the incident, an agitated psychiatric patient had allegedly stabbed a man three times while waiting in a hospital.
It said the psychiatric patient took a knife from the staff nurse pantry and stabbed a dengue patient once in the back and twice in the abdomen.
It also said the victim had to go through a surgery as the knife ended up being wedged in the victim’s abdomen.
