2 days ago
Covid-19 exposed our healthcare system's weakness, say doctors
PETALING JAYA: The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the fragility of the country's healthcare services, says consultant paediatrician and child disability activist Datuk Dr Amar-Singh HSS.
'It is not that we did not know that our health services had been slowly decaying for decades, but we were not allowed to speak publicly about it and always 'today, you will have to manage with what you have'.
'During the height of the pandemic, we experienced desperate cries for help to find an ICU bed for their family members. The support for carers was weak, equipment and resources were limited even in non-pandemic times, stretched thin.
'Some doctors placed their children with grandparents and did not see them for months,' said Dr Amar at a launch of the book titled 'Crisis and Community: Covid-19 in Malaysia' at Gerakbudaya here Sunday (July 27).
The book is a compilation of essays on the Covid-19 crisis by all levels of society, edited by Bridget Welsh.
Speaking further at the event, which was attended by Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, Dr Amar said that there must be better preparation for the next pandemic by placing greater emphasis on building our institutional services, especially health, education and social services.
Fellow panellist Ampang Hospital paediatrician Dr Tan Hui Siu narrated how the medical officers and healthcare workers trudged through the pandemic and had to make do with what they had as frontliners.
'We were giving our best in caring, but also to provide compassionate care and treatment that soothes and comforts everyone.
'So there was a gap where we were actually preparing those guidelines and with some of the clinicians, but by the time they were implemented, it was inadequate,' said Dr Tan.
She talked of how she struggled to cope with the deaths of patients younger than her and how her teams had to care for patients on their deathbeds alone due to the lockdown.
Meanwhile, virologist and policy analyst Dr Lyana Khairuddin called for better education on the vaccine naysayers as well as more investments to be made into vaccine research and development.
She labelled the frantic search for vaccines during the pandemic as the 'Vaccine Hunger Games'.
'The Hunger Games aside, there was also the fight to actually get a slot to be jabbed,' said Dr Lyana.
She said that the pandemic revealed the need for more science education among Malaysians.
'There are still people saying 'I have survived the pandemic and I am not vaccinated and I am okay and healthy'. Then, there are those who say that 'my mother died because she got the vaccine',' said Lyana.
She stressed that there must be more conversations on why vaccines were given during the pandemic and more critical thinking so that people do not fall easily for 'popular traditional cures' during the next pandemic.
