Lack of coordination to manage COVID-19 patients causes undue suffering

By Abdul Rahman Abdullah

 

“I NEVER imagined it would come to this. We are at a time when we have to choose which COVID-19 patients will get the ICU beds and those who don’t, because resources are limited. Each ICU bed needs one on one care. Selection is based on who has a better chance of survival.” 

This was personally shared to me, by my family member who is a doctor in a Covid ICU. With black rings under her eyes and a tired face, she shared the predicament that the medical personnel faced in managing the COVID-19 crisis. 

As she cannot speak out as a civil servant, I have decided to share the story. 

“There are patients who have been discharged, coming back again after two months only to die. For every bed vacated, five patients are waiting. It just seems never ending.” 

Furthermore, there is another gaping hole where there is no standard operating procedure (SOP) for patients who survived and have been discharged to their homes. No one checks on them on how they carry on at home. 

Going beyond their main duties, the medical personnel on their own initiative take charge to check on the wellbeing of their discharged patients. And this is where some patients have asked for help for food because many times, they found that the entire household is COVID-19 positive and needed to be quarantined. That leaves no one to take care of anyone. And no work, hence no food at home. 

She gave an example. An elderly patient was about to be discharged from the hospital, but the two siblings whom she was living with were also COVID-19 positive, in the hospital. So, this elderly patient was going home to nobody. When the medical personnel called for a check, they found out she came home to an empty larder, with no money and no one to take care of her and so, they had to scramble to call friends, NGOs and Good Samaritans to send food to the household.

The Government made no other arrangement or system to take care of this, leaving this presumably to extended families, but people are not able to travel inter-district and inter-state to their relatives’ houses. 

Yesterday, being short of hands and not being able to help a family in desperate need, the doctor of our family turned to me for help. The situation is bad: the elderly mother is in the ICU and her daughter and son-in-law are also COVID-19 positive and had to be quarantined at home.

The daughter is quarantined in the living room so she can cook and manage the house, while her husband and children stay quarantined in a room. While the daughter makes kuih to sell to supplement the family income, her husband drives a Grab. But since both are quarantined, they both do not have an income. To make matters worse, he does not own the car which is used for Grab and has to pay daily rental even if he doesn’t use it.

So, they gave me the necessary details of the family in dire straits and I coordinated the needs of the family with donors. The word had passed around and a few people including a Buddhist monk donated cash to the family.

I also asked a good friend who has contact with the United Sikh and Kembara Kitchen. My friend who is an activist kicked into action, and within a day, United Sikh sent groceries and pampers – as they have a one-year-old toddler – to the family. The United Sikh even manage to get an Oximeter to be loaned to the family to check their oxygen level daily in case they need oxygen bags. 

The wonderful thing about our multi-ethnic country is that people from all religious groups and ethnicities came to help. They helped without needing to know the race or religion of the family, or the kind doctor who took the trouble to find help for the family members while taking care of the elderly mother in the ICU.

They all came in to help because the Government has no system or SOP on this crucial part of COVID-19 aftercare due to oversight or simply a lack of capacity. 

This is one family. How many families who are affected by COVID-19, where one or two family members are in the hospital, and the rest have to be quarantined are finding themselves with no money and no food at home?

Post-COVID-19 care is also important and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Can there be a SOP for this or a unit that is in charge of this? Perhaps the Government can empower NGOs to take care of this aspect, give them a budget, rather than the organisations having to raise funds from the public apart from getting their own volunteers to buy and then distribute the needed items to the families. – May 27, 2021

 

Abdul Rahman Abdullah is a FocusM contributor.

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

 

Photo credit: Medscape

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