GEORGE TOWN: The country’s largest mixed-use Covid-19 field hospital is set to open its doors at 9pm today after nine days of hard work by the army’s medical corps in the car park of the Penang Hospital.
The 100-bed hospital on the 2,300sq m site will see 96 beds used for Covid-19 patients under categories three and four – those with pneumonia and those needing oxygen. The remaining four are for patients needing intensive care.
Previously, the largest Covid-19 mixed-use field hospital was the 80-bed one set up at Hospital Sultanah Aminah in Johor Bahru, which is still in operation.
Speaking to FMT, Armed Forces Medical Second Battalion Commanding Officer Lt-Col Dr Mohd Zamri Derahman said the term mixed-use is used to define field hospitals that have regular and ICU wards.
He said the hospital was set up with a 50-strong army team, with 10 personnel on site to assist health ministry staff in attending to patients.
Zamri said today marked exactly 120 days after the first field Covid-19 hospital was opened in Kepala Batas, which was a full-fledged ICU ward with 24 beds.
“We hope the opening of the field hospital will relieve the pressure on Penang Hospital with the rise of cases of late,” he said.
Separately, Penang Hospital director Dr Teo Gim Sian said presently, all 50 ICU beds in the hospital’s Covid-19 ward were taken up.
Regular Covid-19 wards are at 95% occupancy, she told a press conference this afternoon.
Earlier, Penang chief minister Chow Kon Yeow and Armed Forces Second Division Commander Major-General Arman Rumaizi Ahmad visited the site. - FMT
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