Healthcare, cleanliness at Maeps suffer due to under-staffing

 

By comparison, Hanis* said a nurse had informed her that there are about 3,400 patients at Hall D where she is currently staying.

“There were less than 20 (medical) staff on duty. How were they going to handle 3,400 patients?” the 26-year-old told Malaysiakini.

She and Sarah* - who was discharged on Wednesday - said one side effect of the under-staffing were long queues to see a doctor to get a prescription.

Sarah, 22, was quarantined at the PKRC on June 23. She said in her early days at the centre, it took almost an hour to go see a doctor.

However, by the time Hanis was brought to the centre on June 27, the situation had allegedly gotten considerably worse.

Hanis claimed on her first day, she had to wait in line from 8pm to 2am to see a doctor. On another day, she had to queue from 4pm to 9pm.

She alleged that Hall D - where patients with mild symptoms were placed - did not have enough beds when she arrived, forcing her to be placed in Hall A where the stage 3 patients were housed.

She was only transferred to Hall D the next day.

Meanwhile, Hanis and Sarah also claimed that cleanliness at times suffered due to the lack of staff.

Sarah said part of the problem was other patients.

“Sometimes in the toilet, you’ll find sanitary pads, diapers, face masks, and toothbrushes.

“There’s hair all over the floor clogging the drain outlet,” she said.

In another incident, Sarah said that due to a possible lack of staff, there weren’t enough rubbish bins available - leading to food waste and packaging piling up outside the bins and causing a mess.

Both Sarah and Hanis noted that sleeping areas were also frequently dirty.

For Hanis, the amount of dust under the beds was a frequent trigger for her asthma.

She also said that a mess of garbage, linen and laundry had started to build up on Friday.

Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming received a similar complaint and shared photos of the unhygienic situation yesterday morning.

Hanis said after pictures of the mess went viral, a cleaning crew arrived to help clean up the hall.

She hoped that more staff - both medical and cleaners - could be deployed to help manage the PKRC.

“I think the staff are burned out. I pity them... I pity the nurses who have to run here and there,” she said.

Malaysiakini has contacted the Selangor Health Department and the Health Ministry for comment.

The PKRC ran into similar problems in May, after which the Selangor Health Department vowed to improve the situation.

Hanis said the government should also consider taking in volunteers to help manage the quarantine centre, adding that she would also be willing to lend a hand once she has fully recovered.

“If I’m healthy, I would volunteer... People are so friendly here, in one day you get to make so many friends,” she said.

Sarah, meanwhile, urged the public to take Covid-19 seriously and take care of themselves.

“Everything is becoming more critical. On my last day (at PKRC), there were no more beds, but so many patients coming in.

“Even the canvas beds were fully taken up. Some of the new patients were forced to sleep in the lounge,” she said.

There were 66,958 active cases of Covid-19 as of yesterday - with a majority of patients coming from the Klang Valley.

About 3,047 of 6,658 new cases yesterday came from Selangor.

Malaysiakini has contacted the Selangor Health Department director for a response to the issue.

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* Not their real names.

- Mkini