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Selasa, Februari 18, 2025
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MP wants Health Director to clarify on non-admission of Covid-19 patients aged 60 and above to ICU

Photo : Datuk Christina Liew

KOTA KINABALU:  Former Deputy Chief Minister  Datuk Christina Liew  hopes the critical situation at Queen Elizabeth Hospital 1 (QEH 1) will improve with the assurance by the Health Minister that his Ministry will  help the State Government increase the medical facilities, assets and manpower for fighting the Covid-10 pandemic.

Datuk Khairy Jamaluddin gave the assurance during his working visit to Sabah on Monday.

Liew, who is Api Api Assemblywoman, was commenting on a media report dated September 6 that Covid-19 patients aged 60 and above will not be considered for admission to the ICU at QEH 1, and that it is the same for undocumented migrants as well.

According to the report (quoting a medical frontliner), patients with multiple comorbidities that don’t have a cure, like end-stage kidney failure and  cancer, among others, will also not be admitted to the ICU.

The frontliner was also quoted as saying that the hospital’s new policy is that such cases, which are referred to as “do not

resuscitate (DNR) patients, are instead admitted to normal wards and most of the time, they will die there.

“I don’t blame the medical frontliner for voicing the concerns. The prolonged pandemic has stretched the hospital healthcare capacity to the maximum.

“However, such revelation has not only saddened but also angered the public at large (as expressed on social media). I call on the State Health Director to clarify whether there is such a policy as it smacks of inhumane treatment.

“We need to do our best in the interest of the people’s welfare,” Liew said in a statement on Tuesday.

It was also brought to the Tawau MP’s attention that from now on, health facilities (responsible for Covid-19 tests) are required to conduct Covid-19 screening only on symptomatic individuals and symptomatic close contacts (which may belong to Category 3, 4 or 5) as per a directive issued by the State Health Department on August 30, 2021.

“Why are Category 1 (asymptomatic) and Category 2 (mild symptoms) individuals left out and asked to stay home? Who is to guarantee that their condition won’t deteriorate and progress to Category 3, 4 or 5?” Liew queried.

“I am sure the State Health Department has received reports of people experiencing breathing difficulties, collapsing or dying at home even before their family could alert the ambulance service.”

Noting that Sabah saw a record 55 Covid-19 deaths on September 4, she said 29 of the number were brought-in-dead (BID) cases (based on data from the Health Director-General).

Liew also said now that the Health Ministry would also allocate 29 additional ambulances for hospitals statewide, responses like “Sori, tiada ambulan’ (Sorry, no ambulance) and ”Tunggu lah’ (Wait lah) would soon be a thing of the past when the public dialled 999 (Emergency number) for help.

She welcomed the news that the Health Ministry would provide an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) modular with the capacity of 10 ICU beds to the Tawau District Hospital, adding “Hopefully, everything goes well as planned.”  

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