A 72-year-old woman has suffered burns after a fire ignited while she was undergoing a procedure in a Sunshine Hospital surgical theatre.
The blaze began when medical equipment malfunctioned just after 9:00am and was contained by staff and the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB).
The Melbourne hospital is run by Western Health, which said it was investigating the cause of the accident.
The health service’s chief medical officer Paul Eleftheriou described it as a “tragic incident”.
It took MFB firefighters 17 minutes to bring the blaze under control.
The woman was taken from Sunshine, in Melbourne’s west, to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne’s inner east.
She was in a critical but stable condition shortly after 1:30pm.
“The patient, who suffered burns injuries, was treated immediately at Sunshine Hospital before being transferred to a specialist burns unit,” Dr Eleftheriou said.
“Our thoughts are with the patient and their family. Western Health is offering support to the family.”
MFB fire investigators analysed the site before handing the scene back to hospital staff.
WorkSafe Victoria has been notified.