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| Usage of critical and intensive care unit beds for treating COVID-19 patients in the Klang Valley |
Usage of Intensive, Critical Care Unit beds for COVID patients in Klang Valley has reached 90 per cent
BERNAMA
2/5/2021
KUALA LUMPUR, May 2 -- The usage of critical and intensive care unit beds for treating COVID-19 patients in the Klang Valley has reached 90 per cent as of this morning, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
Based on reports sent to the National Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC), he said, six hospitals with the facility were found to have exceeded the alert threshold of bed utilisation rate at more than 70 per cent.
He said they are the Sungai Buloh Hospital, Kuala Lumpur Hospital, Ampang Hospital, Serdang Hospital, Selayang Hospital and Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital in Klang, with some of them already approaching 100 percent.
"The Universiti Malaya Medical Center reported the use of its critical and intensive care unit beds for COVID-19 patients at more than 50 percent," he said in a post on his official Facebook today.
As such, Dr Noor Hisham said, elective surgeries and procedures in hospitals around the Klang Valley would be reduced or postponed to enable more hospital beds to be reserved for treatment of COVID-19 patients.
“This will also enable the medical personnel to be mobilised to more critical places for the care of COVID-19 patients.
“The Health Ministry will also continue to work with private hospitals, teaching staff or universities in the Klang Valley to increase the capacity of critical beds," he said.
Dr Noor Hisham said the collaboration included outsourcing non-COVID-19 patients with certain cases and procedures for treatment at private hospitals with the cost to be borne by the government at an agreed charge.
Meantime, he said, Sungai Buloh Hospital, which is fully operational as a COVID-19 hospital, will increase the capacity of critical treatment beds in phases to meet the increasing needs.
The Health Ministry has made the procurement for the medical equipment, such as ventilators, since last year to enable the hospital to increase the capacity of critical treatment beds when the need arises, he added.
