PUTRAJAYA, April 13 — The cost of building and assembling a Field Hybrid Intensive Care Unit (FHyICU) to treat Covid-19 patients is minimal, said the Health Ministry’s Engineering Services director Tauran Zaidi Ahmad Zaidi.

Explaining that such units are simple in design, Tauran Zaidi said they were built using the concept of field hospitals used by the Malaysian Armed Forces, and which employ Turkish technology.

"We can build field ICUs ourselves at a lower cost, using local expertise,” he told reporters after a media briefing here today on strategic collaborations on innovations in healthcare engineering.

With a construction cost of between RM1 million and RM2 million, the FHyICU, which is a combination  of an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and an isolation room, can accommodate 10 patients at any one time and is  equipped with electricity, bathrooms, toilets, a donning room, nurse station, and air conditioning and  ventilation systems.

Tauran Zaidi stressed that the construction of FHyICUs was an initiative to meet the need for ICUs among government hospitals, based on possible increases in the number of patients at these respective facilities.

"We have identified a few hospitals. Although the number of ICUs is sufficient so far, there will be a shortage if there is a spike in Covid-19 patients. Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah is one possible place,” he said, adding that an FHyICU pilot project would see the anticipated construction of the units next week at a number of selected hospitals.

The FHyICU is a collaborative initiative between the Health Ministry and UEM Edgenta Berhad to offer an alternative solution to ICUs which are in high demand at government hospitals responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.

UEM Edgenta’s head of sustainability Ir Mazlan Yusoff said the FHyICU which features an Airborne Infection Isolation Room (AIIR), can be ready within three weeks as the construction materials are customised at a factory. — Bernama