Boo: Hospitals refusing to admit Covid patients who look fine can cost lives

 

Public hospitals refusing to admit Covid-19 patients that appear fine could cost lives, Johor DAP committee member Dr Boo Cheng Hau cautioned.

Boo (above), who is a doctor by training, shared the case of a patient who was positive for Covid-19 based on a self-test kit and had been suffering low fever and slight shortness of breath for a week.

He said while the patient's blood oxygen saturation level appeared normal at 95 percent, it dropped from a simple exercise.

"It went down to 92 percent after a simple one-minute sit-up stress test. The patient had to be admitted according to Health Ministry guidelines," he said.

Boo shared X-rays of the patient which he said showed signs of pneumonia.

"Nonetheless, he was refused admission when referred to a public hospital based on the diagnosis of Covid-19 Category 3 at pneumonia phase.

"The patient was forced to be referred to a specialist at a private hospital and treated with steroids and antibiotics as an outpatient," he said.

Thankfully, Boo said, the patient was now recovering after getting treatment at the private hospital.

He said this showed the importance of early treatment in preventing Covid-19 patients from deteriorating to the more deadly Category 4 and 5 phases.

However, Boo said, others may not be as fortunate if they have no alternative treatment after being turned away by public hospitals.

"Brought in dead (BID) Covid-19 patients have spiked. The root cause is that our long-neglected health system is overwhelmed by skyrocketing cases.

"Now, some hospitals have refused to admit Category 3 patients without shortness of breath or normal blood oxygen levels, ignoring the Health Ministry's own guidelines.

"This contributed to more BID cases," he added.

BID refers to cases where Covid-19 patients die even before they are able to receive treatment.

Yesterday, almost a third of the 272 Covid-19 deaths, or 81, were BID cases.

"I hope the Health Ministry will enforce its Covid-19 guidelines in order to ensure Category 3 'happy hypoxic' Covid-19 patients will get early treatment before they slip into Category 4, 5 and deaths in a very short period of time," Boo said.

For the record, Category 1 patients are asymptomatic and Category 2 patients have mild symptoms.

Category 3 patients have more serious symptoms like pneumonia but can likely still breathe on their own, whereas those in Category 4 need oxygen supply. Category 5 patients require ventilators to breathe.

 - Mkini