PRIVATE hospitals are ready to pitch in to lessen the burden of the public healthcare service by taking in Covid-19 patients, as the number of infections soars.

Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia (APHM) president Dr Kuljit Singh told The Malaysian Insight government hospitals would soon struggle to manage the staggering number of cases, with the nation now recording four-figure cases daily.

“It is commendable that the Ministry of Health has taken it upon itself for the last one year to exclusively treat Covid-19 patients.

“Now they have issues because the numbers are going far beyond their capacity despite them doing a good job.

“It’s not their intention to dump the patients on the private healthcare but right now they are calling for help because there would be a time when they might not be able to manage all the Covid-19 patients,” Kuljit said.

APHM is currently discussing with the ministry on the mechanism of accepting Covid-19 patients and at the same time, learning how to manage them.

It would be ideal for private healthcare to start by accepting Covid-19 patients under category 1 and 2, said Kuljit.

There are five categories of Covid-19 infections: 1 is positive cases with no symptoms, 2 is positive cases with mild symptoms, 3 is positive cases with pneumonia, 4 is pneumonia cases that require oxygen and 5 is for cases that require breathing assistance.

“We are now in discussion with the ministry to find out what is the mechanism and also to learn and train ourselves on how to manage these patients because they have the experience.

“Ideally, we may want to start with categories 1, 2 or maybe 3. For categories 4 and 5, it is best for them (MoH) to manage under the government setting.

“But of course, we still need to get prepared if those in categories 1, 2 or 3 suddenly become categories 4 and 5.

“In this case, we may need to manage it until we get a bed in a government hospital.”

Without adequate training managing and handling Covid-19 patients, it could lead to more disasters, he said.

A big private hospital may not equate to a big government hospital because it may vary in terms of structure, infrastructure, manpower and experience, he said.

“They have a battalion of people working there like specialists, medical officers, house officers whereas in private hospitals, we don’t have that kind of numbers.

“Our manpower structure is different. So, those are a bit of a concern that we have to look into before we start to take in a big number of patients.

“In the process of helping and cooperating, we want to make sure that we don’t create more disasters because if we don’t know how to manage and don’t have the proper training, it will result in more deaths.”

Malaysia has so far registered 144,518 cases with 563 fatalities.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Monday announced another round of movement-control order which will be enforced until January 26.

The next day, he added an emergency proclamation, which will run until August 1.

The prime minister said a state of emergency will give wider powers to the government to tackle the Covid-19 crisis.

Muhyiddin had also said the private sector can be co-opted in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic with emergency ordinances.

Kuljit, however, said the prime minister did not mention that the private hospital sector will be nationalised but just wants help.

“Private hospitals are willing to help the government because the prime minister has made it very clear in the emergency ordinance that the government has the option of using private healthcare facilities for Covid-19.

“He never said nationalisation but he is seeking help. That’s why he called for an emergency because he could get help seamlessly.”

Asked if private healthcare would accept non-Covid-19 patients from government hospitals, the APHM president said if the government is willing to bear the cost of treatment, then they would accept. – January 14, 2021.