KUALA LUMPUR: The recent relief at several government hospitals and accessibility to more beds at emergency units can be attributed to private hospitals taking in patients from government medical facilities.
Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia president Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh said since Aug 10, government hospitals have decanted more than 1,592 non-Covid-19 patients to various private hospitals in the Klang Valley.
He said the move to refer non-Covid-19 patients to private hospitals for treatment primarily was to give government hospitals more space to treat Covid-19 cases.
"This has proven to be successful as the latest reports showed a decrease in the number of patients waiting for treatment at government hospital emergency departments for Covid-19."
He said this effort to increase space at public hospital wards is done together with the internal decanting among public hospitals and increased vaccination within the Klang Valley.
"The Health Ministry's secretary-general, Malaysian Armed Forces Health KOR, Deputy Director General of Health [Public Health] and Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia worked the entire process of decanting seamlessly, and all patients received appropriate treatment at private hospitals according to the cost pre-determined by MoH.
"They were also given additional discounts by all private hospitals as a service to the nation," he said in a statement today.
Dr Kuljit said currently the focus of decanting will be in Johor.
"All major private hospitals in Johor Bahru and Nusajaya are prepared to receive decanted patients from government hospitals as the number of Covid-19 patients have now increased in the state," he said adding that they would adopt the same process used in the Klang Valley in Johor.
However, he added that some private hospitals in the Klang Valley have begun registering lesser private Covid-19 patients in the past week but the number of patients on respiratory support in the ICUs remained high.
"The prospect of admitting more Covid-19 patients in Categories 4 and 5 is still a challenge in most private hospitals as many of them are still not recovering fast enough in the limited number of ICUs.
"The vaccination has most likely proven its effectiveness based on the current slight decrease in the admission of Covid-19 patients both in public and private hospitals. We hope more will get themselves vaccinated in the next few months including those outside the Klang Valley," he added.
Dr Kuljit said despite that, all private hospitals will continue to stay vigilant as the pandemic is still not over and the risk of variants are very much still a threat.