Melaka state official Mr Low Chee Leong has said that the pre-war Melaka Hospital is not haunted like “the old Changi Hospital in Singapore”.
Melaka Hospital was opened on 12 Feb 1934 and saw patients from Muar, Johor and Tampin in Negri Sembilan. The British-era hospital also treated military personnel and civilians during World War II.
Mr Low, the chairman of the state Health and Anti-Drugs Committee, made the remark to Malaysian publication The Star as he revealed that Melaka is considering the possibility of implementing ghost tours at “haunted” historical sites to boost tourism.
Revealing that he has been to Melaka Hospital late at night and that even the security guards have not experienced paranormal activity, Mr Low said that the hospital will not be included in the potential programme since it is not haunted.
He added: “There’s nothing ghostly here unlike the old Changi Hospital in Singapore.”
Changi Hospital is a now defunct and abandoned general hospital located in Changi, Singapore. In 1997, Changi Hospital was moved with Toa Payoh Hospital to Simei to merge into a new institution, Changi General Hospital.5 The premises of the old Changi Hospital at Halton Road were thus vacated.
Since its abandonment, many horror stories and paranormal tales have emerged from the old Changi Hospital, ranging from tales of an alleged nurse roaming the compound to poltergeists haunting the old hospital.
Old Changi Hospital, as it is popularly known, was famously declared by many Singaporeans, young and old alike, to be one of the most haunted locations in the whole country. The buildings are said to be haunted by the souls of the victims of the Japanese Occupation, homeless ghosts and the spirits of those who died in the hospital.
In 2017, a video of sightings of a nurse carrying a baby in the haunted hospital circulated around the Internet, sparking debate on its authenticity and the spookiness of the former hospital and the supposed paranormal activities inside. Until now, the authenticity of this video has not yet been proven.
Some of the more prominent areas of the old hospital said to be haunted include the old mortuary which has since been demolished, the tile-walled operating theatre and the old hospital’s Accident-and-Emergency (A&E) building.
There is also a widespread belief of the presence of supposed underground bunkers beneath the old Changi Hospital (from the days when it was a military base), although there is currently no available access to them and their alleged entry points (rumoured to be 3) are also closed off.
While accounts of alleged paranormal encounters at the old Changi Hospital are widely available online, it must be noted that there is almost no substantial proof that has emerged to back these up, aside from several photos or videos taken outside or within the abandoned hospital. -/TISG