By Dr. Steven KW Chow
IT is time for our Ministers to wake up to the unfolding disaster of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Malaysia.
The actual number of daily new cases is clearly way above the confirmed 7,000 plus per day. It is an accepted fact that for every confirmed case, there would be three to 10 undetected cases in the community.
So let’s face it. We are dealing with tens of thousands of new infections daily. This is a war of big numbers and we cannot win this with picking finger-pricking fire-fighting measures.
Deaths from COVID-19 have sky-rocketed. Mortuaries are overflowing and containers are now commissioned daily in the Government hospitals to keep the dead.
In addition to this grim scenario, you can add the increasing number of patients brought in dead on arrival and the unaccounted (unseen and unmentioned) number of excess deaths in any area. The scene is apocalyptic and yet, we have ministers mulling out ideas of super vaccine centres, mobile vaccine trucks (for urbanised KL, where there is a clinic in virtually every corner) and more prickly apps and platforms that do not work when needed.
The present overcrowding and long wait in massive vaccination centers itself is potentially a super-spreader opportunity for the virus.
Simplify vaccination process for all
The way ahead today is only one, and that is, mass vaccination of the entire vulnerable population and in the SHORTEST time possible. There is no two ways about this.
The present process of getting your vaccine is frustratingly slow and is a disincentive for successful roll-out.
We support the call of our other medical non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to do away with this cumbersome system. It’s the bottleneck that is holding us back.
We need to vaccine more and fast. Speed is the key to overcome the spread of the virus. We need to have more centres for the population to get their vaccine including all klinik kesihatan, all hospitals and all general practitioner (GP) clinics.
It is also unnecessary to have the a digitalised system that is not able integrate all the moving parts.We don’t need apps that do not talk to one another. We need people to go to their doctors and have their jabs on the spot.
The UK or US do not have a computerised system. The NHS rolled it out to all their GPs. They just give a card after vaccination and they have done it and succeeded.
We don’t need a’ highly advanced’ system that does not even work. Technology is supposed to help and not be a
hindrance.
The 7,000 GPs and the thousands of klinik kesihatan can easily vaccinate up to 50 patients daily and together with the private hospitals achieve critical mass in a very short time.
All the Government needs to do is to deliver efficiently the vaccine to all of them. This can be pharmaceutical distributors who have the capability and the capacity to do so.
We have complaints from elderly sick patients being allocated to a vaccination centre from their home and have to spend long tiring hours travelling to, locating the place, navigate through the complex and travelling of a broken system.
Patients should be allowed to see the doctor nearest their home, get assessed, vaccinated and then have the information immediately updated into their MySejahtera app.
We urge the Government to do the needful immediately as it is already very late. – May 28, 2021
Dr. Steven KW Chow is the president of the Federation of Private Medical Practitioners’ Association Malaysia (FPMPAM)
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
