SWAMPED with patients and with resources reaching a breaking point, Covid-19 healthcare workers are now burning out.

They told The Malaysian Insight they are soldiering on despite burning out after serving on the frontlines for a year.

Sg Buloh Hospital, which is the main Covid-19 treatment centre in Selangor, is almost reaching its full capacity, sources said.

“We have (reached) full capacity of almost 95%,” a source said.

“We are actually burned out. It has been a long campaign against Covid-19,” added the source who requests anonymity.

Non-Covid-19 intensive care units in the hospital have also been turned into ICUs catering to coronavirus cases.

“We aren’t coping quite well as with this third wave, patients are more ill. All the leaves of the medical staff at the frontline have been frozen as well,” said a doctor on the condition of anonymity.

However, the doctor said despite the overstretched resources, front-liners are doing their best to accommodate all patients.

Another source from the hospital said while the Health Ministry will try their best to add capacity when it reaches the brim, front-liners fear that they will be run into the ground.

“We will squeeze a bed somehow. MoH will accommodate all,” the source said.

“It is the healthcare staff who will be run to the ground.”

While the ICU can stretch up to 1,000 beds, there are also concerns over a shortage of ventilators as the wards are filling up quickly.

Another doctor serving at Malacca Hospital said there is also an issue of shortage of staff there.

“Honestly speaking, many of us are very tired and burned out. A lot of our colleagues were deployed to quarantine centres, so we have a shortage of our own personnel in the emergency department as well,” said the doctor, who declined to be named.

The hospital is also grappling with a backlog in patients as the volume of non-Covid-19 patients remains high.

The hospital caters to both Covid-19 positive and non-Covid-19 patients and a recent spike led to many wards becoming Covid-19 wards while the non-Covid-19 patient volume remains the same.

The emergency department is also crowded, the doctor said.

“The emergency department is filling up especially during weekdays.

“I can tell it’s overstretched because on bad days, we sometimes have many backlogged patients. When new ones arrive, we have nowhere to place them,” she added.

The MO also expressed disappointment over the behaviour of certain errant civilians who refuse to observe the standard operating procedure despite the rise in cases.

Malaysian Medical Association president Dr Subramaniam Muniandy, meanwhile, said the government must be more transparent on its manpower needs, especially when there are shortages in public healthcare facilities.

The shortage of staff is leading to burnout among health workers, he said.

“MMA had on many occasions, over the years, highlighted the need for expansion in public healthcare. Our public healthcare is now overwhelmed with cases of Covid-19.

“A number of these patients are also being dishonest about their health conditions. This too, has been adding to the work stress,” he said.

“Human resources may only be preserved at this time if we have sufficient manpower to run the system. Many hospitals are facing fatigue and healthcare personnel need to be relieved.

“There are also healthcare personnel who are being quarantined and infected as well. Taking this into account, MMA has urged and will continue to urge the government to look into it.”

January 25 marks a year since the onset of the pandemic in Malaysian shores.

The first three victims were Chinese nationals from Wuhan, who entered the country through Johor Baru.

As the country grappled with an upsurge in Covid-19 cases, director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said there is a need for a circuit-breaker to reduce new infections.

“We need a circuit-breaker to bring down the cases from 2,000 down to 200 before we can manage the situation better,” he said in a press conference last week.

As cases continue to rise, Noor Hisham said patients needing ventilator support in ICUs are also increasing.

The ministry is also bogged down by logistics and human resource issues, resulting in delays in transporting patients to treatment centres.

As such the ministry is now looking at various strategies to manage the situation.

Daily cases, which averaged between double and lower triple digits during the initial phases of the pandemic, have now peaked to four digits.

Cases have been averaging between the 1,000-2,000 mark since December before reaching a peak of 3,027 on Thursday.

The government is expected to announce stricter controls later today. – January 11, 2021.