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THE Academy of Medicine of Malaysia (AMM) welcomes the government’s decision to engage with private sector healthcare providers to ease the burden on public hospitals and healthcare workers. On behalf of over 3,000 medical specialists in Malaysia from the public, private and academic sectors represented by the AMM, we are prepared to serve and assist the Health Ministry with its Covid-19 management plan, irrespective of our place of duty.
We acknowledge that there are many facets that need attention to streamline the public and private healthcare systems effectively and efficiently. This includes, but is not limited to, patient coverage, distribution of hospital beds and personal protective equipment, and fair compensation for healthcare workers.
We the undersigned view with much apprehension and concern the current status of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.
Our national metrics paint a very bleak picture of Covid-19 pandemic management. Despite movement control orders (MCOs) and other health interventions, the daily reported cases are not decreasing.
The Cumulative Incidence Density (per 100,000 population) and the Infection Rate (active cases per 1,000 population) is not flattening, with the latest national Infection Rate registered at 0.879 per 1,000 population, meaning between eight and nine persons are actively infected for every 10,000 people.
The testing positive rate (rolling seven-day average) is rising, registering 8.9 percent on Jan 3,2021, well above the World Health Organization s (WHO) 5.0 percent benchmark of effective pandemic control and containment.
Getting ready: A man setting up one of 1,400 beds in Hall D1 for Covid-19 patients at MAEPS in Serdang, Selangor. AZLINA ABDULLAH/The Star
PETALING JAYA: Private hospitals have treated Covid-19 patients before, but the practice was to send them to government hospitals once beds became available there, says the Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) president Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh.
As such, private hospitals were ready and ironing out details with the government to determine how many patients a private hospital could take and which would be able to treat the disease up to Category 5, he said.
Category 1 are positive cases with no symptoms, Category 2 are positive cases with mild symptoms, Category 3 are positive cases with pneumonia, Category 4 are those with inflammation in the lungs and require oxygen, and Category 5 are those admitted to hospital in the late stages and require ventilator support.
PETALING JAYA: Three medical associations in the country have expressed willingness to lend their expertise in the battle against Covid-19.
The three - the Malaysian Society of Anaesthesiologists, College of Anaesthesiologists, and the Malaysian Society of Intensive Care - said this as discussions were being held between stakeholders from the Health Ministry and the Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) to further outline strategies for the involvement of the private sector in handling Covid-19 patients in various stages of their illness. We would like to assure the public that as practitioners in the field of anaesthesiology, critical care and intensive care, we are expected at all times to manage critically-ill patients irrespective of whether they are in public or private hospitals.