KUCHING: Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian will follow up on the extra RM2.3 million of the Health Ministry (MoH) allocation to upgrade the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH).
The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) advisor visited the SGH ICU today.
During the visit, he was briefed on SGH’s status by its director Dr Ngian Hie Ung.
Dr Sim shared the details of her briefing and statement via a Facebook post today.
Touching on the ICU status in SGH, Dr Ngian said originally, there were 18 beds in the ICU but now, after the hospital repurposed its Clinical Research Centre (CRC) Ward (10 beds) and extension ward (eight beds) for critical care cases, there are 36 ICU beds.
“Out of the 18 beds in the ICU, 12 have been assigned for Covid-19 cases, including high-risk severe acute respiratory infection (Sari) and PUI (persons under investigation) cases. 58.7 percent of the beds are occupied by positive Covid-19 cases,” she said.
Dr Ngian explained that the rest of the beds in the CRC Ward and extension ward are all for clean ICU patients.
She added that the ICU is also occupied by other non-Covid-19 cases which required intensive care and treatment.
She said for the past one month, SGH had recorded a significant increase in the number of Covid-19 cases with the number of admissions steadily increasing since Epidemiological Week (EW) 6 this year.
“A steep surge of cases was recorded from 250 cases to 481 cases (92 percent increase) in EW 15,” she said.
On Covid-19 cases from Apr 19 to 25 (EW 16), she said for admissions of Covid-19 and PUI, there were 69 average admissions per day.
Dr Ngian said in EW 16, a total of 373 positive Covid-19 cases were recorded (a drop of 22.5 percent).
“The highest number of admissions recorded was 103 on Apr 25,” she said.
On the admission trend in SGH from Apr 19 to 25, Dr Ngian said the highest number of daily admission recorded for positive Covid-19 was 86 while the lowest was 32.
On the current average bed occupancy rate (BOR) for Covid-19 patients in SGH from Apr 19 to 25 (EW 16), she said it was at 74.57 percent for the Covid-19 ward, the designated ward for positive Covid-19 cases and high-risk Sari/PUI cases.
She said the average BOR in EW 16 for critical care (ventilated bed allocated for positive Covid-19 cases and high-risk Sari/PUI cases) was 80.95 percent.
As for quarantine and low-risk treatment centre (PKRC), she said the average BOR in EW 16 was 79.13 percent.
“This means that there is still room for optimal care for such cases,” she said.
Dr Ngian hoped for the public’s understanding and cooperation as SGH continued to thrive to protect the community from Covid-19.
“We also urge the public to help stop the Covid-19 transmission by always adhering to the standard operating procedures as stipulated by MoH,” she said.
