Opinion: Bolster external medical support to shore up our hospitals

By Sathish Govind

 

NEWS of hospitals around Klang Valley bursting at the seams could not come at a more inappropriate time especially after the country has been on lockdown for more than a month.

With businesses inching to get back on their feet, a looming health crisis on the horizon appears to seriously undermine their plans and accentuate their problems

Hospitals have declared that they have run out of beds and ventilators, with too many COVID-19 admissions. Adding to the woes, medical officers resigning within 24 hours as they were exhausted with the crisis as they had lost hope

The dire situation of shortage of doctors, nurses, and paramedics should be addressed immediately as health care resources and personnel are stretched beyond means.

We may be able to find beds and oxygen for them but that alone will not treat patients as we need quality healthcare professionals who are presently exhausted and depressed.

The Government must not hesitate to bring in medical experts, nurses, and paramedics from countries that successfully managed to defeat the pandemic to complement our existing medical staff.

Towards achieving this, China stands out as a country whose expertise should be sought to help us tide through the crisis. Its tenacity and ability to defeat the crisis should be emulated at all levels of the machinery in Malaysia to defeat the pandemic.

It is not an understatement to say that the intensive care unit (ICU) is in a critical stage and rarely does it happen when doctors would have to be thinking about their lives before saving their patient’s life,

It is estimated that about 7,000 doctors have already been infected with COVID-19 and monetary incentives alone cannot make a doctor work in the COVID-19 ICU for months and we need to give them a breather to face the battle that may long and arduous.

If we can shore up our medical capacity and hospital through medical equipment and personnel, the Government can consider opening the economy as to the soonest.

With additional capacity at the hospitals and a somewhat increased pace of vaccination, we will be able to bounce back soon. It is hoped that the Government would expedite the pace 0f vaccination in Klang Valley particularly at the industrial sites that the economy can start humming again.

It is hoped that the vaccination, shoring up medical support immediately through external support, the present conundrum would finally come to an end, with people, again would be able to get back to being their usual selves. – July 15, 2021

 

Sathish Govind is from Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.

 

Photo credit: Getty Images

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