KOTA BARU, April 13 — The Universiti Sains Malaysia Hospital (HUSM) in Kubang Kerian has invented a product called Covid-TT or ‘Covid Transport-Tool’ which will help the process of moving Covid-19 patients.
Its director, Prof Datuk Dr Ahmad Sukari Halim although HUSM Kubang Kerian is not a dedicated Covid-19 hospital, it is in a constant state of preparedness to help the Health Ministry fight the disease.
He said the product was the brainchild of its head of anaesthesiology, associate professor Dr W Mohd Nazaruddin W Hassan and operations room co-ordinator, associate professor Dr Rhendra Hardy Mohamad Zaini, and was made by staff at the HUSM operations theatre.
“Covid-TT will help in moving patients in the ‘patient under investigation’ (PUI) and those with ‘severe acute respiratory infections’ (SARI) who have undergone operations and are being moved to the SARI wards, the high-dependency unit (HDU) and the intensive care unit (ICU) for treatment and recovery.
“The Covid-TT can help prevent contamination to the environment caused by the spread of Covid-19 during the transfer process of the patients. It functions by maintaining a negative pressure environment during the transfer process,” he told Bernama today.
Ahmad Sukari said the Covid-TT is made of everyday cheap items such as pvc pipes, thick clear plastic, rubber gloves, tape, gum, hepafilter, vacuum pump, and recycled ‘valve trocar laparoscopic disc’ and circuit tubes, all at a cost of RM300.
“The Covid-TT is simple and cheap compared to the ‘patient isolation and transportation’ (ISOPOD) which costs between RM30,000 and RM40,000 each, but it can protect the safety of the health workers who handle PUI and SARI patients and ensure that HUSM patients and staff are not exposed to a dangerous environment.
“What is special about the Covid-TT is that it was designed by those people who deal with patient treatment, comprising nurses, head nurse, and health assistants, with the cooperation of the customer service office, assistant medical officer in the ICU, and the department of biomedics in HUSM,” he said.
Due to the difficulty of getting material to produce the Covid-TT, HUSM has so far produced only one Covid-TT set, but hopes to produce a second set soon. — Bernama
