'Spend RM300m on vaccination, not negative pressure ambulances'
Pakatan Harapan's healthcare committee has questioned the government's decision to open tenders to buy 500 negative pressure ambulances.
The committee said the ambulances would reportedly cost RM300 million, money which they believe should be spent on ramping up vaccination efforts instead...
Pakatan Harapan's healthcare committee has questioned the government's decision to open tenders to buy 500 negative pressure ambulances.
The committee said the ambulances would reportedly cost RM300 million, money which they believe should be spent on ramping up vaccination efforts instead.
"This is clear wastage which does not at all help solve the Covid-19 crisis," they said in a joint statement.
Plans to purchase the negative pressure ambulances - which are also fitted with high-efficiency particulate air (Hepa) filters and UV lights - were revealed by Health Minister Dr Adham Baba on Saturday.
A Bernama report cited Adham as saying that the ambulances were important for locations with a high number of Covid-19 cases but did not specify how much these ambulances would cost.
A negative pressure ambulance has a special low air pressure chamber to transport patients. The low air pressure means air can only get into the chamber but not out.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said this setup helped protect healthcare workers and the public from infection.
The Harapan healthcare committee, however, questioned whether there was enough data in Malaysia to justify purchasing these special ambulances.
"How many frontliners who are transporting Covid-19 patients or deceased patients have been infected or have contributed to new clusters in the country?" they asked.
They also questioned whether the purchase would be via open tender, which companies would be involved, and why the Health Ministry was in such a rush to purchase the ambulances.
The committee also said that the RM300 million could instead be spent on increasing the number of vaccination centres, including roping in private clinics, and expanding mobile vaccination for rural and interior peoples, and drive-thru vaccination for urban folk.
The statement was jointly signed by former health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad, former deputy health minister Dr Lee Boon Chye, and lawmakers Ong Kian Ming (DAP-Bangi), Dr Mohd Hatta Ramli (Amanah-Lumut), Dr Kelvin Yii (DAP-Bandar Kuching), Sim Tze Tzin (PKR-Bayan Baru), Alice Lau (DAP-Lanang).
It was also signed by health excos Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud (Selangor), Dr Norlela Ariffin (Penang), and Veerapan Supramaniam (Negeri Sembilan), as well as Amanah's Dr Niekmah Adam and PKR's Dr Zaliha Mustafa.
'No significant benefits'
In a separate joint statement, the College of Anaesthesiologists, the Academy of Medicine of Malaysia, the Malaysian Society of Anaesthesiologists and the Malaysian Society of Intensive Care said the use of negative pressure ambulances has not been shown to have significant benefits.
“As we understand from the press statement, the use of a negative pressure ambulance will prevent transmission of Covid-19 infection to the healthcare workers involved in the transfer of infected patients.
“However, we need to highlight that the destinations these patients are brought to are not necessarily negative pressured areas in the emergency departments, intensive care units (ICUs) or wards.
“As such the benefit of the negative pressure ambulances would be negligible especially if all healthcare workers are clad in appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) during the transfer,” they said in the statement today.
They said they had yet to come across any mention of the role of negative pressure ambulances in the Covid-19 pandemic in any recommendations or guidelines thus far.
It would be more important to have negative pressure in ICUs, high dependency units, operating theatres or wards where the infectivity is high, they said.
“At this point in time, our three societies jointly believe that these ambulances are of no benefit in managing Covid-19 cases,” they said.
The Health Ministry has since issued a statement denying that they intended to buy 500 negative pressure ambulances.
The ministry said its minister spoke about a tender for 500 ambulances, with no mention that they were going to be for negative pressure ambulances.
The misunderstanding may have arisen as the minister made those comments during a handover ceremony of negative pressure ambulances to the low-risk quarantine centre at MAEPS, it said.
Adham also stressed that the open tender was for normal ambulances, not negative pressure ambulances.
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