KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 6 — Private hospitals are currently seeing a decreased number of admissions involving Covid-19 patients both in intensive care units (ICU) and normal wards, said Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia (APHM) president Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh.
According to him, the number started to decrease in the last two weeks, particularly in the Klang Valley.
Apart from Covid-19 patients, he said the number of patients decanted from public hospitals too has dropped, compared to two months ago.
“Over 3,500 decanted non-Covid-19 patients were treated in the private hospitals in the Greater Klang Valley and the on-going decanting in Penang is about 203 and outsourced elective surgeries and procedures in the island about 713, since the pandemic.
“This had been one of the largest transfer of patients to private hospitals, which had significantly assisted public hospitals in managing Covid-19 when at its peak about two months ago,” said Dr Kuljit in a statement today.
However, things are starting to recover, as private hospitals are now beginning to treat their regular non-Covid-19 patients in larger numbers and managing health conditions that have been delayed because of the pandemic, he added.
“Similarly, some of the public hospitals in the Greater Klang Valley are now back to serving non- Covid-19 patients and the decanting process to private hospitals is slowly ceasing,” said Dr Kuljit.
With the current development, he hoped that private hospitals would soon be able to assist in administering adolescent and booster vaccines for the eligible group, including healthcare front liners, as the economy opens up for the endemic phase.
Dr Kuljit also hopes that medical tourists from neighbouring countries would be allowed at the soonest, particularly those who had been vaccinated, adding that the move would help increase revenue for the country. — Bernama
