NEARLY 150 severely ill Covid-19 patients in the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park (Maeps) low-risk quarantine centre are in the queue for transfer to the hospitals, which have run out of beds, sources told The Malaysian Insight.

At the newly operational UKM Specialist Children’s Hospital, a staff shortage has limited the number of patients it can receive.

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

The hospital 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 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.

“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 infection categories in ascending order of severity, ranging from 1, where there are no symptoms,  to 5, 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.

Sources said sorely needed health workers with experience have been deployed to vaccination centres.

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.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Dr Adham Baba told The Malaysian Insight that manpower will be increased from time to time.

“(The hospital) just started operations. We will increase (staff) from time to time,” Adham said when asked to comment. – June 27, 2021.