No pressing need to return to Cox's Bazar Field Hospital, says Jen Affendi

There is no pressing need to send personnel back to the Malaysian Field Hospital in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, after its operations were ended by the government in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Malaysian Chief of Defence Force Jen Tan Sri Affendi Buang.

He said there was no necessity for the deployment of Malaysian personnel because Cox's Bazar was now well equipped with healthcare facilities.

"Previously, when Malaysian personnel were deployed there, not many countries had extended health services aid and that was why the Field Hospital was built and taken over by us.

“The Field Hospital was built as a frontline facility at that time. Despite its limitations, it was sufficient to tackle the health problems at that time,” he told Bernama at Wisma Pertahanan here.

Affendi said the situation was now different following the involvement of more non-governmental organisations in the provision of health facilities there.

“Now all facilities have improved and the services of our forces are no longer needed there. By right we could have remained but there are no critical functions to perform anymore,” he added.

Affendi said the services of the Malaysian armed forces were needed at that time because of the refugee issue faced by that country.

“In June, the government decided to cease the operations at the Field Hospital as a precaution against the spread of COVID-19. All our soldiers there have returned and assessments are still being made on whether to redeploy them there when the pandemic ends,” he said.

The Malaysian Field Hospital at the refugee camp in Cox's Bazar was set up in December 2017 to cater to the needs of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled to southeastern Bangladesh following the conflict in western Myanmar.

-- BERNAMA