PETALING JAYA: Mercy Malaysia has stepped up emergency support to the Ministry of Health (MOH) for the rapid conversion and operationalisation of Covid-19 ICU at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) Specialist Children’s Hospital (HPKK) due to mounting scale of cases.
Mercy Malaysia will focus on providing essential equipment and supplies such as beds, ventilators, PPEs and medicine, as well as resources.
“Leveraging Mercy Malaysia’s interdisciplinary expertise on crisis management, we are augmenting the set-up at HPKK to be Covid-19 ICU-ready,” its president Datuk Dr Ahmad Faizal Mohd Perdaus said today.
“In addition, Mercy Malaysia will also fill capacity gaps of specialist professionals, medical and non-medical services from among ourpool of volunteers to address critical care team shortages.
“Responding to an urgent discussion called by Datuk Dr Norhizan Ismail, MOH’s Deputy Director General (Medical) recently, Mercy Malaysia had quickly mobilised its Emergency Medical Team (EMT) to provide non-Intensivist training and upskill existing HPKK staff including medical officers, medical assistants and nurses in the management of Covid-19 critically ill adult patients. The training was conducted in early June 2021.”
Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah recently announced that the Prime Minister had given his approval for HPKK to be temporarily converted into a COVID-19 hospital under the Emergency Ordinance (Essential Power) 2021.
The HPKK was opened to the public last year and has been providing outpatient services. It is expected that more non-MOH facilities around the country will be repurposed under the Emergency Ordinance to accommodate intensive care of COVID-19 cases, of which Mercy Malaysia will be ready to support.
