Govt hospitals grossly underfunded, says expert

 

Many government hospitals, like this one, are filled to the brim. (Bernama pic)

GEORGE TOWN: With the rise in Covid-19 cases, hospitals are facing situations they have not been prepared for. Wards are packed, corridors are lined with beds and patients are overflowing into the yards.

More funds are needed for hospitals to cope with the deluge, say experts.

Public health specialist Dr Tharani Loganathan of Universiti Malaya said there was an urgent need to invest more money on expansion.

She said hospitals needed not only to expand their physical spaces but also to spend more on human resources and equipment.

Dr Tharani Loganathan.

“Our public hospitals have been chronically underfunded and overloaded for decades,” she told FMT. “As such, they can’t handle the rapid increase in severe Covid-19 cases requiring hospitalisation.”

Tharani said manpower had to be mobilised to states with high numbers of cases from states with low numbers as well as from the private sector and teaching hospitals.

She called for consideration of alternative methods of health financing such as social health insurance.

The government has been transferring out non-Covid-19 patients from government hospitals to focus on Covid-19 cases, and Tharani said this could help manage the load at government hospitals.

But she also suggested that the government avail itself of the armed forces’ capacity to set up field hospitals.

Dr Lee Boon Chye.

Former deputy health minister Dr Lee Boon Chye called for more efforts to convert existing facilities into makeshift hospitals.

He said the idea of social health insurance to replace government funding for hospitals was untenable for the time being since it would require a separate bureaucracy and would be taxing to the public.

Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin said the current situation in Malaysia was not as dire as it was in India last May, “but we’re getting there”.

Sim welcomed the increase in the number of ICU beds, but called for overall bed capacity to be increased, adding that large-scale Covid-19 hospitals ought to be built on government-owned land since the virus might linger for some years.

Sim Tze Tzin.

He suggested that such hospitals be built in population centres with the aid of the army medical corps.

He said Tapak Ekspo in Seberang Perai would be a good spot for a large-scale Covid-19 hospital, given its proximity to the Seberang Perai Hospital, which is now a full-fledged Covid-19 centre.

“Of course, we need to boost staffing for all this. We are going to fight Covid-19 for a very long time,” he said.- FMT