File photo of an exterior view of the National University Hospital in Singapore.

SINGAPORE: A maid tasked with caring for a bedridden elderly woman during her stay in hospital pinched her several times over her body.

For pinching the 67-year-old cancer patient on her arm, cheek, nose and breast, Myanmar national Lain Ngain, 28, was sentenced to four months' jail on Wednesday (Sep 11).

The court heard that the maid began working for her employers in September 2017, and was asked to care for the elderly woman, the late Madam Wee Keu Hoi.

Mdm Wee was bedridden and in ill health between July 2018 and January this year, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Colin Ng.

She was warded at the National University Hospital (NUH) for end-stage renal cancer, and Lain Ngain was to care for her and attend to her needs in the hospital ward during visiting hours.

Between 11.55am and 1.05pm on Dec 31, 2018, Lain Ngain pinched Mdm Wee on her arm, breast, cheek and nose.

When Mdm Wee's son visited her in hospital later that day, she told him that the maid had hit her on several occasions.

Mdm Wee's son told the duty nurse about what had happened, and the nurse reviewed closed-circuit television footage and confirmed that Lain Ngain had hurt his mother.