Dr Nanthakumar Thirunavukkarasu
SIBU (Sept 3): Home quarantine for Covid-19 patients here had to be introduced to ensure that the health system would not be overwhelmed, said Sibu Hospital director Dr Nanthakumar Thirunavukkarasu.
He explained the increasing number of Covid-19 cases had stretched the hospital, requiring more Covid wards to be opened.
“Our ward is almost full. Yesterday (Wednesday), I had to open another Covid-19 ward; another 36 beds. So that is why, what worries me is, I can keep on opening more quarantine centres, or open more wards, but we have maximum capacity for our infrastructure.
“We need to have a contingency plan, that is why home quarantine came in. At the moment, our capacity is increasing, but this kind of number will soon reach our ceiling in a matter of days.
“We have already started home quarantine because our health system would not be able to admit everyone. We do not want to reach a point where we overwhelm the health system and those who really need the care may not be able to get,” he told a press conference via Zoom yesterday.
Dr Nanthakumar said he needed to prioritise hospital resources for the elderly, young ones, high risk patients, and those who were ill.
He said Sibu Hospital had mobilised some staff from Covid care back to non-Covid wards.
However, due to the increasing number of cases, some staff had to again be redeployed to the quarantine centres and Covid ward.
Dr Nanthakumar pointed out the specialist clinic ceased operations from January until April so that staff could be moved to the quarantine centres and Covid ward.
As a result, he said many specialist clinic appointments and elective surgical cases had to be postponed.
“Now we see the complications, the tumour is growing at home, so that is why, a month back, we already started to run other support services in full strength.
“But now, I do not have the option of doing that again (shutting down specialist clinic). We must run both our services; maybe I will not run like last time, maybe only about 50 per cent or 60 per cent operation, and the issue right now is the manpower,” he said.
He explained that in April and May, many deployment staff were sent to Sibu Hospital to help out, but now they have all left.
In order to accommodate everyone, Dr Nanthakumar said he had to reduce his existing staff at the specialist clinic and other departments.
While he believed the home quarantine strategy would not be well received by the public, Dr Nanthakumar urged the people to understand the urgency of the situation and to take it positively.
“The public is still very new to this home quarantine strategy because all this while, positive cases are being admitted to the quarantine centre and we are able to cope until today.
“But it came to a point today that if we did not make any decision and continue with this strategy, it will overwhelm the health system,” he said, adding that it would take some time to accept the home quarantine strategy.
He urged those waiting for their test results and are feeling unwell to contact the hospital immediately.
He pointed out test results might take some time because Sibu Hospital had to outsource certain samples to Kuching and Kuala Lumpur.
Separately, he said due to the vaccination programme, the Covid-19 fatality rate had dropped to around 1 per cent compared to as high as 10 per cent a few months ago.
“We still have fatalities, but not as frequent as before and, mind you, significant number of them had not completed their vaccination or had not been vaccinated. Only a few of those who completed two doses succumbed to the illness,” he said, adding that those who died had multiple comorbidities and undiagnosed conditions.
from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/3DKYABG
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