COVID RESPONSE
The Malaysian hospital taking centre stage against COVID-19
The first cases of COVID-19 were identified in Malaysia in late January 2020 . As the disease progressed globally into a pandemic , so did the number of cases grow in Malaysia , from single digits to two and then three by March .
A control and treatment plan was hatched by government health authorities , with Sungai Buloh Hospital at the forefront .
From the outset , the hospital took on the heavy responsibility of managing this new and emerging disease by implementing strict infection control protocols and stopping the rapid spread of the disease .
“ We ’ ve done some things in Malaysia differently from other countries . Number one is that , when we have identified people who are positive with COVID-19 , whether they were asymptomatic or having symptoms , we will isolate them and treat them at our hospital ,” said Noor Hisham Abdullah , Malaysia ’ s director-general of health , as the crisis unfolded .
Before the pandemic , Sungai Buloh Hospital was a busy tertiary hospital specialising in , among other things , infectious diseases . Its emergency response plans were immediately activated in preparation for a flood of COVID-19 patients .
“ It was amazing . It was really a challenge for us because the situation was unprecedented ,” said Sungai Buloh Hospital ’ s director , Dr Kuldip Kaur A / P Prem Singh . “ Being a tertiary hospital that is fully specialised and subspecialised , we had to quickly convert
Hospital Sungai Buloh has been designated for treating Covid-19 patients
our usual operational protocols to cater for this virus . It wasn ’ t an easy feat .”
The front-liners , bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 assault , had to be ready , as the pandemic was showing itself to be relentless in its advance as an unseen and unknown enemy .
Sungai Buloh Hospital pulled out all the stops in providing extensive training and awareness programmes for its staff . When there was a risk of exposure to potentially infectious material , healthcare workers had to be able to recognise the signs and take immediate contingencies and safety control procedures .
Immediately , the hospital was also forced to scale down all its elective cases to make way for COVID-19 patients and decant those in wards to other hospitals in the area . The evacuation took place floor by floor so that Sungai Buloh Hospital could concentrate its resources solely on COVID-19 patients , while preventing the virus ’ transmission to others . Nurses and doctors from all over Malaysia were deployed and reassigned to serve at Sungai Buloh Hospital , leaving their families and familiar surroundings to fill a widening gap in manpower .
To cope with an expected surge of COVID-19 cases , and facing its own shortage of ventilators , the public hospital was forced to borrow ventilators from hospitals in the private sector — 106 in total .
“ We started to think out of the box . We had to open up many wards that had been closed for a long time , like
18 DECEMBER 2020 GlobalHealthAsiaPacific . com