KUALA LUMPUR – The Pakatan Harapan health committee has reiterated its position following allegations of misreporting pertaining to the procurement of negative pressure ambulances by Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba on June 22.
In a statement today, the committee said despite the explanation from Health Ministry secretary-general Datuk Mohd Shafiq Abdullah and extensive reasons argued by public health experts and infectious disease clinicians, it is made abundantly clear that the procurement of such ambulance models is unnecessary at this juncture.
“On top of that, a joint statement released by the College of Anaesthesiologists, Academy of Medicine of Malaysia; Malaysian Society of Anaesthesiologists; and Malaysian Society of Intensive Care has refuted the need for such negative pressure ambulances and (says) that they will not improve outcomes nor help improve the Covid-19 situation, (but bring) large monetary consequences.
“On the contrary, we have always emphasised the urgent need to invest in the public health approach of find-trace-test-isolate-support (FTTIS) as to flatten the curve and reduce deaths and brought-in-dead (BID) cases.”
The committee stated if at all a negative pressure system is required, it is for hospital wards and rooms that expose many patients and staff to the risk of infection.
“Frontliners managing ambulances are already immunised, in addition to the fact that they are in full PPE (personal protective equipment) when managing Covid-19 patients in ambulances.
“Much to the chagrin of all, the discussion on procuring assets as important as ambulances, are only taking place at the tail end of this pandemic even though such procurement has already been endorsed under the former Pakatan Harapan government.
“This goes to show the misplaced priorities and lack of proactive measures taken by the current government to deal with the current health crisis,” the committee said.
While Shafiq’s clarification has helped clear the air and the media’s misreporting is unfortunate and regrettable, the committee called on the Perikatan Nasional administration to set its priorities straight and base the country’s pandemic measures on science and data.
“They cannot be overly dependent on lockdown or MCO, but also give greater emphasis to the mantra of FTTIS as to arrest the escalating unliked and sporadic community cases.
Besides, the committee said, the nation must galvanise the country’s entire resources in a truly “whole of government” and “whole of society” way in executing all programmes.
“We can only avoid periodical or recurring ‘lockdowns’ if we have holistic public health measures pivoted on science and evidence and the mantra of FTTIS, and a ramped-up vaccination roll-out or PICK (National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme), across the entire country.”
Prior to the clarification, Dr Adham had on June 19 announced that the ministry will begin procuring more negative pressure ambulances to ferry Covid-19 patients to treatment centres.
“We will begin with the tender for 500 units of this type of ambulance, and for other ambulances, we will use the leasing system according to zones.
“This is so logistics issues concerning Covid-19 patients can be resolved,” he reportedly said. – The Vibes, June 23, 2021
