KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 — Sarawak Utilities Minister Dr Stephen Rundi Utom is set to meet with Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) heads of department, amid a Covid-19 cluster among hospital workers.
The Borneo Post reported that the meeting will focus on welfare issues of the hospital’s health care workers, after 58 staff contracted Covid-19 as of yesterday, including 49 who have recovered.
The State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) has set up a committee to investigate the welfare of SGH medical staff, and they are still gathering information at the moment.
Dr Stephen Rundi and his assistant minister, Dr Abdul Rahman Junaidi, are leading the above-mentioned committee that was assembled after two anonymous letters sent to CodeBlue and The Malaysian Insight alleged haphazard coronavirus testing and quarantine procedures at SGH.
A letter from a self-dubbed “burnt-out health care worker” at SGH sent to CodeBlue last week highlighted troubling work conditions at the main public hospital in Kuching.
“There have been countless examples of HCWs being picked up as Covid-19 positive and ending up bringing down at least 10 more colleagues due to quarantine,” said the author.
“Testing and quarantine of the health care workers were haphazard — all were asked to come back early despite having Day 13 swabs pending, ultimately leading to disaster, with spread among health care workers (HCWs) running rampant and quarantine of HCWs left, right, and centre.”
Previously, the Ministry of Health (MOH) denied that the Covid-19 cluster at SGH was the result of caring for Covid-19 patients, even though the letter posted to The Malaysian Insight claimed that the first few SGH health care workers to test positive had been exposed to the first Covid-19 victim, who had died in the MOH hospital at the end of March.
Sarawak recorded 525 total positive Covid-19 cases, 310 total discharged cases, and a death toll of 17 as of May 5.
