Kuching private hospitals to take in Covid patients - APHM
Private hospitals in Kuching, Sarawak have been requested by the Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) to assist the government in managing the rising numbers of Covid-19 patients.
APHM president Dr Kuljit Singh (above) said this decision was made as they believed patients may soon increase beyond the public hospital’s capacity.
“There were 3,732 positive Covid-19 cases reported on the...
Private hospitals in Kuching, Sarawak, have been requested by the Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) to assist the government in managing the rising numbers of Covid-19 patients.
APHM president Dr Kuljit Singh (above) said this decision was made as they believed patients may soon increase beyond the public hospital’s capacity.
“There were 3,732 positive Covid-19 cases reported on Sept 21 but the percentage of Cat 4 and 5 is fortunately in single digits.
“However, the cumulative number of Cat 4 and 5 in the ICUs and wards will soon increase beyond the available space and exhausting healthcare personnel within the public hospitals,” Kuljit said in a statement today.
He added that one of the private hospitals has agreed to accept self-paying Covid-19 patients within the next week once retrofits and approvals are obtained.
However, he said, there is limited bed capacity in most private hospitals in Kuching which leads to very few available beds and ICUs for Covid-19 patients.
These hospitals are in discussion to provide assistance if requested by the government.
As a solution, Kuljit suggested that non-Covid patients from Kuching government hospitals be decanted to private hospitals to allow for more Covid-19 patients to be treated in government facilities.
“This process of decanting had a huge success in the Greater Klang Valley with 3,187 patients receiving care in the private hospitals and currently there are about 1,000 beds available for future decanting.
“Penang has so far decanted 69 patients which began 10 days ago and the process is now ongoing rapidly and the private hospitals on the island have treated 1,325 Covid-19 self-paying patients since the pandemic,” he said.
Kuljit hoped that private hospitals in Kuching and other towns in Sarawak are able to follow the efforts made by the private hospitals in the peninsula both in treating self-paying Covid-19 and decanted non-Covid patients based on their existing capacity and capability.
Private, NGO involvement in teen vaccinations
On a separate matter, Health Ministry company ProtectHealth Corporation Sdn Bhd said private healthcare and NGOs will be involved in the recent Covid-19 vaccination rollout for adolescents.
The programme is officially called PICK-Remaja.
“More than 3.2 million teenagers aged 12 to 17 will be involved in PICK-Remaja. Teenagers, especially Form 4 and Form 5 students, need to be vaccinated as soon as possible before school opens in October 2021.
“Private medical practitioners and NGOs will assist the ministry to speed up the vaccination rate of PICK-Remaja, as they will be involved in the programme,” it said in a statement today.
ProtectHealth’s role is to coordinate private, public and NGO healthcare services for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP).
ProtectHealth CEO Anas Alam Faizli said private and NGO healthcare facilities have contributed 47 percent of all adult vaccination jabs thus far.
"The involvement of private medical practitioners and NGOs has proven to be effective in maximising and achieving vaccination targets.
“This is evident in the success of NIP (adult) where ProtectHealth has contributed 47 percent of the total vaccination doses of NIP through private medical practitioners and NGOs, representing 19,116,154 vaccination doses out of 40,375,056 total vaccination doses of NIP,” he said.
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