KUALA LUMPUR – As the number of ventilators and oxygen tanks dwindle in public hospitals, the plea for funds to expand Intensive Care Unit (ICU) facilities has also intensified.
Klang MP Charles Santiago says RM20 million is needed to lift hospitals out of the doldrums.
He cited the understaffed and under-equipped Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah (HTAR) which caused a friend’s mother-in-law – who was Covid-19 positive – to wait outside the hospital’s emergency department for three days before receiving treatment.
“She passed away on the fourth day because ventilator support came too late,” Santiago said in a statement.
He also said he has been receiving tweets from his constituents about family members treated for Covid-19 at hospitals and not receiving their meals.
“It is not only Covid-19 patients facing the brunt, the frontliners are also overworked.”
Santiago said that frontliners work between 12 and 14 hours a day, and their workload is increasing daily, given the rise in infections.
“Three medical assistants at HTAR are assigned to take care of two hundred people a day.
“In other words, a medical assistant needs to complete a patient’s primary care within 15 minutes.
“The government promised to transfer more frontliners from other states to HTAR, but this pledge has yet to be fulfilled,” he said.
Santiago said that the PN administration could not call themselves a prihatin government if they did not show political will to support frontliners and save lives.
“The government has to urgently allocate RM20 million for each hospital in Klang Valley, including HTAR to expand ICU facilities and buy more ventilators and oxygen tanks,” Charles said. – The Vibes, July 28, 2021
