The Malaysian Insight

THE Health Ministry is looking into adding intensive care unit (ICU) beds and trained staff for Covid-19 patients at the UKM Specialist Children’s Hospital (HPKKUKM), said minister Dr Adham Baba.

He was responding to queries on the shortage of staff at the newly operational hospital that has affected the transfer of severely ill Covid-19 patients from the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park (MAEPS) low-risk quarantine centre to the hospital.

“Most ICU and critical wards in the Klang Valley are fully occupied,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

“Our option is to provide more ICU beds and the critical ward with trained staff at HPKKUKM.

“Another option is for us to work with more teaching hospitals such as UITM and UPM,” he added.

Adham said as the hospital was new, the ministry would increase the manpower from time to time.

On the patients in MAEPS waiting for their turns to get into hospitals, Adham said a transit unit has been set up within the facility to treat them while waiting for hospitals to accommodate them.

“There is a transit unit to manage these cases. There are specialist and trained staff handling the transit unit,” he said.

The Malaysian Insight previously reported that some 100 to 150 severely ill Covid-19 patients in MAEPS were in queue for a transfer to the hospitals, which have run out of beds.

A staff shortage has limited the number of patients the UKM Specialist Children’s Hospital can receive.

The Health Ministry recently commandeered the hospital to serve as a Covid-19 treatment centre for patients in the central region.

It has 243 beds, 28 of them in the intensive care unit (ICU).

It received the first batch of 14 critically ill Covid-19 patients last week but is hard-pressed to receive more due to a shortage of manpower.

Meanwhile, a growing number of patients in MAEPS are in urgent need of hospital care, but only 40 of them were sent to the children’s hospital in the past week, said sources.

“It is a new building and it is not yet fully operational but it is fully equipped.

“The issue with this hospital is that it has capacity for more than 200 patients but right now it has the manpower for only 40 beds.

“Meanwhile, we have about 100 to 150 (patients) waiting to be transferred to hospital,” a source said.

Sources said while MAEPS has the equipment, including oxygen assistance, to treat patients with pneumonia, these cases often deteriorate into Category 4, needing hospital care.

There are currently about 1,000 patients with pneumonia in the quarantine centre.

There are five Covid-19 infection categories in ascending order of severity, ranging from one, where there are no symptoms, to five, pneumonia with multi-organ failure.

“Intervention is urgently needed now. If you have too many patients on oxygen at the quarantine centre, the oxygen supply will run out eventually,” the source said.

A source said the waiting period for a transfer to hospital can stretch to days and it takes up to six workers to care for one Category 4 or 5 patient. – June 28, 2021.