BUTTERWORTH – With the alarming surge in the volume of Covid-19 cases in the country and Penang in recent weeks, the Health Ministry (MoH) has decided to convert the Seberang Jaya Hospital – mainland Penang’s largest public medical facility – into a full-fledged Covid-19 hospital.
Sources said MoH had directed the state Health Department to alert the hospital administration about impending changes to handle the worsening situation in the state, and the heads of departments at the hospital were recently informed about the adjustments.
However, the Health Department has yet to be given the green light to implement the changes.
The sources also said the hospital’s outpatient department may be closed, similar to what was done at Penang General Hospital on the island recently, where those coming to receive outpatient treatment or simply collect medication will be asked to instead visit clinics near their homes.
Penang has, from August 19 till yesterday, registered 23,442 Covid-19 cases. As of yesterday, a cumulative total of 88,253 cases and 603 deaths were recorded in the state.
Seberang Jaya Hospital, located near the North-South Highway, is in close proximity to Butterworth and easily accessible from both Bukit Mertajam as well as Kulim, which is on the other side of the nearby state border.
The referral hospital with 314 beds provides specialist services for patients from all over Seberang Prai and southern Kedah.
Currently, Penang General Hospital and Kepala Batas Hospital are functioning as full Covid-19 hospitals. The other three public hospitals in the state, Bukit Mertajam Hospital and Sg Bakap Hospital on the mainland and Balik Pulau Hospital on the island, continue to attend to non-Covid-19 patients.
Last week, One Hope Charity and Welfare donated a 40ft (12.2m) freezer container to Penang General Hospital to store the bodies of Covid-19 patients. A similar container was donated by social activist Ebit Lew to Kepala Batas Hospital. The containers can store 50 bodies each.
Penang General Hospital’s forensics department head Datuk Dr Zahari Noor had said the two containers and the hospital mortuary can house up to 200 bodies at a time.
Abandoned new block
MoH had in 2015 launched a RM368 million expansion project for Seberang Jaya Hospital – a 10-storey block with a multilevel carpark beside the old hospital complex.
The expansion, which was supposed to have been completed in 2018, kept being delayed, with the project now abandoned.
The government has come under fire over this matter as the new block could have easily housed another 638 beds. As it is, the hospital is already facing a shortage of beds for Covid-19 patients.
Then deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had announced in 2015 that work would be completed in 42 months.
The project was delayed when the federal government changed following Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) May 2018 general election win, of which Muhyiddin’s Bersatu party was then a component.
The PH government had demanded an “open tender system” to ensure transparency, inadvertently contributing to the delay.
Penang Health Department officials could not be reached for comments. – The Vibes, September 2, 2021
