Private hospitals: We stand ready now

FOR the last two to three months, up to Feb 12, private hospitals in Malaysia have not reported any critical admission of Covid-19 cases of category four or five despite the 20,939 cases reported as at Feb 11. Category one and two cases have been admitted to private hospitals mainly at the patient’s request to be isolated; all of them are self- funded as most insurance companies still do not cover Covid-19, particularly the mild cases.

We have noticed that there is a vast difference in the severity of cases compared with August 2021 when there were 22,000 plus cases reported and almost every private hospital – particularly in the Klang Valley – had zero beds available both in their Covid-19 wards and Covid-19 ICUs. Patients who were willing to pay the full cost of treatment at private hospitals had to be turned away and transferred to government facilities which were beyond their maximum capacity too.

The virulence of the existing Omicron variant may be milder though it is very infectious, and the fact that most of our population is fully vaccinated – some even with the booster dose – is keeping the severity of the disease at a very low level. However, continuous vigilance and self-monitoring is still very important among the population.

Total private hospitals beds are estimated at 16,500, and there are various percentages of beds in each hospital that have been made ready to help the government at any time assistance is required to receive decanted non-Covid-19 patients and to treat full-paying Covid-19 patients based on the capacity and capability of each individual private hospital.

Private hospitals are regularly engaged by the Health Ministry on this issue of preparedness through the National Covid-19 Rapid Response Task Force.

DATUK DR KULJIT SINGH , President Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia