The Ministry of Health (MOH) is setting up a call centre to improve monitoring by the Covid-19 Assessment Centres (CACs), said the ministry's director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
He said the centre would receive calls from patients with symptoms to be channeled to the relevant CACs and general enquiries on the Home Surveillance Order (HSO).
The centre will also be redirecting emergency calls to Mers 999 (Malaysia Emergency Response Services), he said.
“For a start, it will be implemented in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, and Putrajaya which have a high caseload. Apart from that, the MOH will also add telephone lines at 33 CACs in the three states, to reduce call congestion," he said in a statement today.
Noor Hisham said this is being implemented as the sharp increase in Covid-19 cases since April led to a high workload for those at the CACs.
He said the situation also caused anxiety among patients who were undergoing HSO, especially when they reported new symptoms or deterioration of symptoms in the MySejahtera system, but did not receive any feedback.
He said the number of patients visiting the CACs had increased by 150 percent to 10,000 cases a day on June 5, while the number of active cases under CAC monitoring had also increased 108 percent from 5,300 a day to 11,000 a day.
According to Noor Hisham, 198 CACs are currently in operation with teams comprising family physicians, public health physicians, medical officers, assistant medical officers, nurses, and environmental health assistant officers.
CACs evaluate Covid-19 patients on whether they may self-quarantine at home or be admitted into a Covid-19 Low-Risk Quarantine and Treatment Centre (PKRC) or to a hospital.
- Bernama
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