YOURSAY | Record high deaths – our health system is collapsing

 

YOURSAY | ‘It is very disheartening to hear Bowie Kong’s ordeal…’

Woman alleges father denied oxygen, blanket, bed before he died

YellowGecko9040: It is very disheartening to hear Bowie Kong’s ordeal in losing her father and the lack of care he received while in hospital for Covid-19. My heart goes out to you. Condolences to you and your family.

To the rest out there, this is the stark reality on the ground. The shortage of beds in all hospitals. The long queues waiting for admission. The crowded emergency departments and triage areas. The haphazardly laid-out canvas bed and the open tents erected outside the emergency departments to cope with the overflow of waiting cases (to be seen and to be admitted).

This is on the background of inadequate oxygen supplies (wall mounted and tanks), multiple patients sharing one tank with MacGyver-style innovation of using connecting tubes, not enough pulse oximeters to go around.

Top it off with poor ventilation, close quarters with no social distancing, many of the patients waiting in the emergency departments for other ailments (not Covid-19) and are tested negative on admission, eventually turn out to be positive later during their stay in a non-Covid-19 ward.

Many instances of this have happened and the common denominator seems to be the long wait in emergency departments for reviews and admissions.

The doctors and nurses are grossly inadequate and are trying their level best to see everyone in a timely manner. A nurse of mine who was pulled to manage a Covid-19 ward recently stated that in her ward there are 37 beds filled with Covid-19 Category 3-4 patients as well as some Category 5 patients that are ventilated in the ward.

Each shift has five nurses to take care of these 37 patients but in reality, only two nurses wear the full personal protective equipment (PPE) and enter for the whole shift whereas the other two stay out and do all the paperwork, including the reports and forms for every single patient as relayed by the two nurses inside.

The two nurses inside see all the 37 patients with the doctors, do the bed making, bathe the patients (those who need assisted care), take all the vital signs of each patient and do all patient-related work for that whole shift. It takes one whole shift of seven hours to do so and by the time they finish, they are exhausted.

The other single nurse is the runner accompanying patients to CT scans, getting the medications and all other auxiliary stuff. They change roles on different days. So, you can imagine how care is compromised. More so if a patient needs to be turned prone to help ventilation and the patients cannot help as they are too obese or exhausted to do it for themselves.

But the nurses soldier on because it is their passion and their care of duty that drives them on. Hats off to them!

The doctors too have a heart-breaking decision to make every single time. I have friends working in different ICUs all over Klang Valley and they quote the same problem: Making the hardest decision on deciding which one of the waiting patients deserve a closer observation and care in a proper ICU, and leave the unlucky one to die ventilated outside ICU.

In the furore over Covid-19, a lot of non-Covid-19 patients with other ailments such as cancer, strokes and heart attacks lose out as ICUs are taken up primarily for Covid-19 patients.

This has been going on for months. My anaesthesia colleague managing one of the ICUs said she had sleepless nights for weeks, but after months dealing with the worsening situation, she has become numb. She sleeps now because she is tired, no more tears to spare.

Interestingly, the Health Ministry is aware of this but choose to remain silent instead of releasing real-time data on non-Covid-19 deaths that are preventable. The system has been stretched beyond its capacity.

Warning signs were already there last year, from within and from outside the country. Unfortunately, these were not heeded and our once much-vaunted healthcare system has been torn to pieces. Pray hard for the country and for its people, for the ending does not look pretty.

Maya: This is just the tip of the iceberg. People have been dying in the past few months. Many are unable to recount the ordeal. Things have been bad for the past six months and now is beyond hope for many.

They are short of practically everything. One can imagine the situation, especially if oxygen and blankets are in short supply. Obviously, there is delay in everything as well. Many have to accept the situation and suffer in silence. They are mostly the poor, same with Klang MP Charles Santiago's friends.

Now I think everyone can relate to someone passing away due to Covid-19. I personally know of four cases.

This is what a failed system is. Everything is collapsing in our health facilities. This has been highlighted by many frontliners. Nothing is being done. This is all under the watch of our top leaders, who need to take the blame.

What do the opposition think they can do? Shouting at hospital directors to resign is not the answer knowing very well they are also in the same situation - helpless. Something concrete has to be done high up.

Everyone was shouting for PM’s head, then the health minister’s and his director-general's and now the hospital director's head. Who is next down the line? The head of department's head? Not only the government has failed, but the opposition has also failed.

Cat In The Bag: @Maya, what exactly can the opposition do but hold those in power accountable for their abuses and bungling? That is precisely their role. It serves to bring to light the government’s incompetence and force improvements however little at a time, even when the odds are stacked against them.

Look at what's happening in Parliament now and how the opposition leaders are treated. They've done a lot more than you with your "blame everyone" philosophy.

Jazli Salleh: The health minister should take full responsibility and resign. It is a shame to even hear such horrible, heart-wrenching stories of how hospitals are managed.

I feel saddened by such reports and hope that the government would replace the minister and put a more responsible person in charge. Former health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad would be a good choice even if he is from the opposition.

The Wakandan: My heart goes to you, Bowie. Deepest condolences on the loss of your father, Kong Wan Hong.

It is curious indeed that he was not given a blanket. We can understand the lack of beds, but blankets?

It is very cold in the hospital where air-conditioning is set to the coldest temperature to discourage infection. I see no reason why he was not even given a blanket.

Kailash: It's very unfortunate. It makes me wonder if this could be the reason that there is an increase in the number of patients brought in dead (BID).

Many are scared of going to the hospital and dying, neglected and alone. This is what happens when the health facilities are completely stretched out and broken down. - Mkini