Association: Private hospitals safe, patients should resume treatment

 

COVID-19 | The Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) has assured that private medical facilities remain safe during the Covid-19 pandemic and urged patients to resume their treatments.

This came after Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah recently warned the public to “stay away” from hospitals and discouraged visitations.

The warning was to prevent cross-infection in light of how 14 more public hospitals have been mobilised to treat Covid-19 patients.

In a statement today, APHM president Dr Kuljit Singh stressed that private hospitals were the “safest places to be” as they followed stringent standard operating procedures (SOPs).

“(We would like) to make it clear that private hospitals are safe as we follow SOPs.

“In addition, the Private Medical Practice Control Section (CKAPS) has made sure private hospitals follow the Private Healthcare Facility Act 1998 to the dot and now we are the safest place to be in during the pandemic,” he said.

CKAPS is a division under the Health Ministry that regulates private healthcare.

Kuljit thus urged patients at private hospitals to continue with their treatments.

“We stress that patients should not defer their treatment, follow-ups and early health interventions just because of Covid-19.

“They must be reminded that if their medical condition is not kept under control, they will be in the high-risk group if they contract Covid-19,” he warned.

The ministry's move to mobilise more public hospitals and allocate additional Covid-19 beds came as designated Covid-19 hospitals were filling up fast.

Records for total active infections have been broken several times this month. Malaysia presently has 41,087 Covid-19 patients in treatment.

Of this number, the ministry estimated that about 20 percent are hospitalised as they belong to either Category 3 (serious symptoms), 4 (pneumonia and require oxygen) or 5 (critical illness and multi-organ failure).

The government is in talks with APHM on how to integrate private hospitals into the Covid-19 response mechanism. - Mkini