THE Health Ministry will retain all Covid-19 hospitals nationwide until the epidemic has abated, Khairy Jamaluddin (Rembau-BN) told the Dewan Rakyat.

“For now, we will keep Covid-19 hospitals in the states until the epidemic can be handled better.

“We are not sure how long it will take, but with the reduction in hospitalisation, more hybrid hospitals will be set up for the treatment of Covid-19 and full Covid-19 hospitals will be converted back to regular hospitals,” the health minister said.

With the June surge in infections in the Klang Valley, Ampang Hospital, Selayang Hospital and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Specialist Children’s Hospital were among several converted into Covid-19 hospitals.

“With the surge of cases in the Klang Valley, the ministry took over hospitals under the Emergency Ordinance. This allowed an increase in intensive care capacity.”

Several other field hospitals in Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah, Hospital Sultanah Aminah in Johor and Labuan Field Hospital were also set up.

“These initiatives (field hospitals) were done with the help of the Armed Forces and Mercy Malaysia.”

Khairy said with the increase in hospital capacity, there is also a need for more healthcare workers.

To that end, he has instructed a national rapid response task force to be set up so that these healthcare workers can be deployed to areas coping with a surge of Covid-19 infections.

“In Penang, we have deployed 223 healthcare workers, including 57 medical officers, 36 nurses, 62 assistant medical officers.

“In Kedah, where there is an outbreak, we have deployed 152 healthcare workers. In Sabah, 102 healthcare workers were deployed.

“We will rotate them to ensure that there are enough medical personnel in surge areas and that front-liners in those states won’t be burned out by the extra workload.” – September 22, 2021.