The Health Ministry is prepared to send between 50 to 60 of its personnel to help set up a field hospital of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, said Health Minister Dr S Subramaniam.

He said the team comprising experts from various fields have yet to be sent to Bangladesh but are already prepared to depart.

“We will see how long they are needed (in Bangladesh). If this would take long, maybe we will send them in rotations,” he told reporters when met at MIC’s Deepavali open house at the Batu Caves temple today.

He said the government is now waiting for suggestions from the Bangladeshi government on where to set up the RM3.5 million field hospital.

Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the government had obtained permission from the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF)

The MAF will build the hospital, which will be in operations within one month after construction and would initially be able to have 50 beds and take in 50 patients.

However, Zahid reportedly said that the hospital would only have 35 medical staff.