Sarawak Health Director Dato Dr Mohamed Sapian Mohamed – Photo by Chimon Upon
SIBU (Sept 30): The Sarawak Health Department has refuted claims that Sibu Hospital staff are being forced to work until they burnout and various other allegations raised in a letter by a purported doctor to a website on health related news.
State Health Director Dato Dr Mohamed Sapian Mohamed said while it was true that the leave of the hospital’s staff had been frozen, there was still flexibility given to those who needed time off from work.
He said in a statement that leave would be given if there are matters involving the welfare of the staff such as family emergencies or medical matters.
“In fact, rest leave is also considered for employees who suffer from fatigue or lethargy and are unhealthy to work,” he said in response to the claim by an unnamed local doctor which was published on the website, CodeBlue.
Dr Mohamed Sapian also said to address human resource shortage, existing hospital staff had been mobilised for the provision of services at the Covid-19 Quarantine and Low Risk Treatment centre (PKRC), new Covid-19 ward, provision of medical services for non-Covid-19 patients, Clinic Covid-19 Specialists and Immunization program.
In addition, he said a total of 52 contract trained nurses had been placed along with 10 medical officers from Peninsular Malaysia who will be mobilised to Sibu Hospital on Oct 5 to Dec 24 to support the need for human resources.
On the issue of hospital staff infected with Covid-19, Dr Mohamed Sapian said based on investigations, the majority of 53 active cases of Covid-19 among its staff were infected through the community.
He said to prevent the spread of the virus in the workplace, steps had been taken to limit the use of the pantry space, mandating the use of face masks during ward patrols, emphasising the practice of handwashing and performance sanitation activities on a regular basis.
Responding to the claim that bed utilisation numbers at the Sibu Hospital had been manipulated as the occupancy had not reached 100 percent, Dr Mohamed Sapian said the hospital increased the number of beds for the treatment of Covid-19 patients according to the need.
But despite the addition of beds, he said the monthly occupancy rate remained above 100 percent.
“The reduction in the number of Covid-19 beds during a pandemic was low. The acquisition of the data is dynamic and there is an increase and decrease in the number of beds for Covid-19 treatment according to current needs.
Therefore, the denominator of the total bed capacity will also change from time to time,” he said.
For this month, Dr Mohamed Sapian said the average patient admission to Covid-19 ward per day was 89 patients and the average discharge per day was 118 patients.
As of today, he said a total of 275 active cases were being treated at the hospital’s Covid-19 ward, including 147 Covid-19 patients with Category 1.
He said the total number of beds in Sibu Hospital was 642 beds and there were still 157 beds to accommodate new patients.
On the lack of assets, Dr Mohamed Sapian said they had increased additional health facilities such as PKRC, Covid-19 ward and new Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds.
In total for 2021, he pointed out that Sibu Hospital had received an allocation of RM9.4 million from the Health Ministry (MOH) for the purpose of completing facilities in the ICU Ward, Covid-19 Ward and PKRC.
“These include five oxygen concentrators and 26 ventilators from the MOH,” he said.
In addition, he said Sibu Hospital also received donated equipment, namely nine ventilators from Pharmaniaga, eight ventilators from Petronas Foundation, four ventilators from the Government of China, one ventilator from the Government of Brunei, five oxygen concentrators and five BIPAP from Temasek Foundation International.
To ensure the quality of patient care and increased patient bed capacity, he said the State Health Department was in the process of creating a field hospital at Sibu Hospital which will indirectly provide space for patients to be treated more comfortably.
“We will always ensure that Sibu Hospital is able to improve the quality of its services from time to time, including improving the quality of existing medical care.”
On the issue of insufficient oxygen gas supply, he said Sibu Hospital was equipped with a VIE system with a capacity of 20,000 litres of oxygen.
“Currently, Sibu Hospital has 296 oxygen cylinders and will receive 40 additional large oxygen cylinders supplied by MOH.”
On the postponement of elective surgery for non Covid-19 patients, Dr Mohamed Sapian said the hospital management had outsourced treatment by sending patients to private hospitals in Sibu.
“To date, an allocation of RM2.3 million has been used for the implementation of outsourcing of a total of 832 cases involving cases of orthopedics, general surgery, ophthalmology, otorhinolaryngology, obstetrics and gynecology as well as radiology.”
Adding on, he said Sibu Hospital had just received an additional allocation of RM600,000 on Sept 27, 2021, for the purpose of outsourcing in an effort to reduce the burden of managing non-Covid patients at Sibu Hospital.