KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 — Covid-19 patients in private health care facilities are required to bear the cost of treatment, said Chief Secretary to the Government Mohd Zuki Ali said today.
“The payment mechanism of Covid-19 patients through insurance is being refined by the Ministry of Finance (MOH), Ministry of Health (MOH), Bank Negara, and insurance industries,” Zuki said in a statement.
“As of now, the private sectors have been empowered to treat the Covid-19 patients who are able to bear their treatment and medical cost.”
Zuki also said that MOH will continue to work together with private health care facilities and other relevant parties to ensure smooth Covid-19 management and to avoid disruption of public health services.
He also said that all government facilities and resources will be integrated to handle the Covid-19 epidemic in the country during the state of emergency.
According to Zuki, the government has established an emergency management technical committee during the implementation of the Emergency Ordinance to support smooth operational measures to manage the Covid-19 situation in the country.
The integration of public and private health care facilities during emergency ordinance will ensure a systematic coordination to provide complete access to health care services for Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 patients, Zuki said.
This will also ensure the optimal usage of existing health care facilities and experts during Covid-19 epidemic.
According to Zuki, the operations of hospitals, including public and private health care facilities, as well as university and military hospitals, will be carried out based on the cluster hospital concept under the Integrated Covid-19 Control Centre.
“Mobilisation of other medical sources such as personal protective equipment (PPE) and medicine all depends on the needs of the hospitals, especially for public health services. That includes mobilisation of health care workers, such as nurses from private hospitals who have specialised skills to temporarily work in public hospitals.
“Optimise the capacity of existing laboratories, especially in government agencies and public universities, to test and detect Covid-19 on a large scale.”
Besides that Zuki also highlighted the National Security Council’s (NSC) plans to transform the National Service Training Programme (PLKN), and Bina Negara camps into temporary detention centres. The detention centres will be used by the Prisons Department, Immigration Department, as well as the police.
“This is to ensure physical distancing between detainees to prevent the Covid-19 virus from transmitting among them,” Zuki added.
