The Covid-19 situation is now worsening at public hospitals, particularly in the Klang Valley, with regards to high bed occupancy and shortage of staff.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) has requested the Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) to seek help from its members to provide nursing, medical officers and specialists to help in public hospitals.
In response to their request, most of the private hospital groups and some stand-alone hospitals have agreed to supply trained staff nurses (as the first step) in batches to the government to assist in managing Covid 19 patients in selected public hospitals in the Klang Valley.
We shall at a later stage assist them by providing other medical personnel.
Since last year, private hospitals have been helping in managing the pandemic by providing ventilators, conducting Covid 19 testing, and treating Covid 19 patients since January 2021.
In addition to this, large private hospital groups like IHH Healthcare, KPJ Healthcare, Sunway and Ramsay Sime Darby Hospitals have been actively involved in administering Covid 19 vaccinations in their hospitals and vaccination centres.
These private hospitals are also very short of manpower, as involvement in the fight against Covid-19 has stretched their human resources.
In spite of this difficulty, private hospitals are still willing to support the government in managing the pandemic.
We have urged our members to be prepared to accept non-Covid 19 patients decanted from the government hospitals so that there will be more capacity to treat Covid 19 in public health care facilities.
Our hope is that these patients will be equally distributed to all private hospitals in order to provide them with the best care and treatment. The costs will be fully borne by the government as per the Emergency Ordinance.
Health Minister Dr Adham Baba made this urgent statement today, particularly for Hospital Kuala Lumpur.
In addition to this, private hospitals will further assist the government to ramp up the 12 million doses of vaccines that are expected to be received in July.
Currently, more than 100 private hospitals are assisting with the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) under the guidance of ProtectHealth.
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