COVID: Private hospitals to provide nurses to government hospitals

KUALA LUMPUR: Most of the private hospital groups and stand-alone hospitals have agreed to provide trained nurses, in batches, to assist the government in managing COVID-19 patients in selected public hospitals in the Klang Valley.

Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia president Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh said the move was based on the current COVID-19 situation at public hospitals particularly in the Klang Valley in terms of high bed occupancy and shortage of staff.

"The Ministry of Health has requested the Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia's members to provide nursing, medical officers and specialists to work in the public hospitals. We shall, at a later stage, assist them with other medical personnel," he said in a statement today.

Dr Kuljit said although large private hospitals involved in the COVID-19 vaccination programme such as IHH Healthcare, KPJ Healthcare, Sunway and Ramsay Sime Darby Hospitals are also short of manpower, they are still willing to support the government in managing the situation.

Therefore, he said the association has urged its member to be prepared to accept non-COVID-19 patients decanted from the government hospitals to provide more capacity to treat COVID-19 in the public healthcare facilities.

"Our hope is the decanted patients are equally distributed to all private hospitals in order to give the best care and treatment to the public patients and it will be fully paid by the government as per the Emergency Ordinance," he said.

Apart from that, he said private hospitals will further assist the government to ramp up the 12 million doses of vaccines expected to be received this month. Currently, more than 100 private hospitals are assisting in vaccination under the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme.

-- BERNAMA