MOH briefs stakeholders on public-private hospital integration plan
The Health Ministry has communicated its public-private hospital integration plan to stakeholders in line with its hope that the plan could be implemented next week.
Director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said today’s online briefing involved 596 people from various groups.
The Health Ministry has communicated its public-private hospital integration plan to stakeholders in line with its hope that the plan could be implemented next week.
Director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said today’s online briefing involved 596 people from various groups.
Among the medical groups represented were the Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM), Malaysian Medical Association (MMA), Federation of Private Medical Practitioners’ Associations Malaysia (FPMPAM), Islamic Medical Association Malaysia (Imam) and the Medical Practitioners Coalition Association of Malaysia (MPCAM).
Officials from the ministry, its Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC), state health departments as well as Bank Negara Malaysia were also present.
“During the engagement, we presented updates on MySejahtera’s features such as self-reporting for Covid-19 positive cases and home patient management, the Covid-19 Assessment Centre (CAC) and the Unified Command Centre (UCC),” Noor Hisham posted on Facebook.
Set up in every district, the CAC oversees Category 1 (asymptomatic) and 2 (mildly symptomatic) Covid-19 patients.
Among its tasks is to identify which patients qualify for home quarantine and which need to be placed in quarantine and low-risk treatment centres (PKRC). The CAC officially began operations today (Jan 23).
“The UCC is a functional organisation which oversees and coordinates all the efforts related to the clinical management of Covid-19 patients within a particular area and will integrate the private healthcare facilities,” the top official shared.
Malaysiakini previously reported that the UCC will oversee Covid-19 patients who need hospitalisation - meaning those in Category 3 (with serious symptoms), Category 4 (with pneumonia and requires oxygen) and Category 5 (with critical illness and multi-organ failure).
READ MORE: A glimpse of how private sector may be roped into Covid-19 fight
The command centre will determine what kind of resources an area needs - including clinical services, ambulance services, clinical support services and human resources - and arrange them.
Teamwork needed
Noor Hisham said today that he hoped cooperation between the public and private sector would help Malaysia overcome the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Regardless of whether we are from the public or private sector, our contribution is equally important. We must work as a team.
“We are all soldiers in this long and tough battle and the nation is depending on us to help overcome this pandemic,” he exhorted.
The government is reaching out to private hospitals because public hospitals are strained by the rising number of Covid-19 patients who need hospitalisation.
The ministry plans to transfer non-Covid-19 patients to private hospitals. It also wants private hospitals to admit and treat Covid-19 patients instead of referring them to public hospitals like before.
The ministry is further considering transferring Covid-19 patients from public hospitals to private facilities.
Another feature of the plan is to assign healthcare workers from private hospitals to work in public hospitals as well as vice versa.
The government recently allocated RM100 million to integrate private hospitals into its Covid-19 response mechanism but has yet to reveal details about how it will be spent.
APHM told Malaysiakini earlier today that this sum was insufficient but was a good start.
The association contends that private hospitals are better suited to treat non-Covid-19 patients as Covid-19 care would incur hard-to-quantify indirect costs.
As for payment options, private hospitals previously proposed that insurance companies cover Covid-19 patients who have medical cards.
However, insurance policies generally do not cover pandemic-related risks. Insurance companies argue that there are too many risks involved to fully insure Covid-19 treatment.
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