THE Health Ministry is increasing intensive care unit (ICU) capacity, ventilators and ambulance service as the healthcare system comes under pressure with mounting Covid-19 cases, said Dr Adham Baba.

The health minister told The Malaysian Insight that the ministry is working with other government agencies and private hospitals to ensure adequate facilities.

Among the government agencies involved are the Higher Education Ministry, Defence Ministry, National Disaster Management Agency, Fire Department, Civil Defence Force and Malaysian Red Crescent Society.

The ministry is also procuring ambulances, ICU essentials and ventilators with the funds allocated.

Adham said teaching hospitals such as Universiti Malaya, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Mara and Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz UKM will add 300 more ICU beds.

“Military hospitals have prepared field ICU services, which have a capacity of 36 beds,” he said.

This, he said, was decided at the coordinating agencies meeting chaired by the chief secretary of the Health Ministry on May 10.

The Health Ministry is also in the midst of preparing seven modular ICUs, which can house at least 70 beds. Modular ICUs are constructed with prefabricated materials to create extra space, which can be used as ICUs.

A stockpile of medical and non-medical equipment is also being prepared to ensure sufficient supplies to meet treatment needs.

“These are among the preparatory initiatives taken to increase treatment resources and medical services to handle the surge in Covid-19 cases,” said Adham.

Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 cases have been trending in the range of 3,000-4,000 cases over the past few weeks. Active cases have been on the rise since April 6.

The grim numbers have forced the government to impose the third movement control order (MCO 3.0) from May 12 to June 7.

The ICUs at some hospitals are packed to the brim while some are nearing full capacity.

Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow recently said all ICU beds in the state have been taken up.

Since May 9, the nationwide ICU occupancy has been over 400 cases, which is the highest since the start of the pandemic.

Yesterday, 481 patients were warded in ICUs with 247 needing respiratory assistance

Director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah recently told directors of government hospitals to prepare for an exponential upsurge in Covid-19 cases with serious symptoms.

In a May 7 letter, sighted by The Malaysian Insight, Noor Hisham gave several reasons for a likely increase in cases, namely the high infectivity rate (r0) of 1.07 nationwide, the festive season, insufficient vaccination coverage and high population density in some areas.

He said there could be more cases with categories 3, 4 and 5 symptoms, with groups such as the elderly and people with comorbidities being particularly at risk.

These include suspending all surgeries and elective procedures to free up beds, mobilising human resources for Covid-19 care, increasing bed allocation at hybrid hospitals from 21% to 50%, mobilising clinical and non-clinical staff within the hospital, and placing asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients under home surveillance. – May 14, 2021.