KUALA LUMPUR – Two PKR MPs have slammed the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government for being nonchalant about the strained capacity of intensive care units (ICUs) amid surging Covid-19 infections.
Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin and former deputy health minister Dr Lee Boon Chye told a virtual press conference in Parliament that the government had failed to take mitigating steps to increase the capacity of ICUs in the past two months despite the surge in Covid-19 cases.
“The government has failed to plan as they have ignored the situation of ICUs in states like Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Melaka and Negeri Sembilan.
“The health minister failed to prove that the government is taking this seriously. The minister has to be held accountable.
“We urge the government to look into this issue. The people are suffering with most patients needing to be warded in ICU and because of the lack of ICUs, many have died,” they said at the joint press conference.
Sim urged the government to increase ventilators and the number of nurses and doctors working in ICUs.
Meanwhile, Dr Lee said the four-phase National Recovery Plan (NRP) that involves transitions in the movement control order, which is based on data and three key thresholds, is unrealistic.
The three thresholds are based on community spread based on daily cases, availability of ICU beds, and the percentage of the population that has been fully vaccinated.
“This is not the Olympics, you can’t just move the goal post as you like. But the government has just the goal post so that it can still ‘score’.
“Unfortunately, it is impossible to reach the goals of the NRP to move to Phase 2.
“The vaccination rate could be reached but the government will not be able to achieve it due to its incompetency,” the Gopeng MP said. – The Vibes, July 27, 2021
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