Page 38 - FIGHT AGAINST UNCERTAINTY 5 FEB 2021

Intensive Care Unit (ICU)

The preparation of ICU facility started as early
as January 2020. In the beginning, only three
dedicated hospitals, namely Hospital Sungai
Buloh, Hospital Sultanah Aminah, Johor Bahru
and Hospital Sultanah Maliha, Langkawi
were identified to receive the initial imported
COVID-19 cases for ICU care, with the capacity
of 81 ICU beds and 95 ventilators during the
first wave. At the height of the increase of cases,
during the second wave in March 2020, number
of hospitals with designated ICU care for
COVID-19 patients were increased from 3 to 33
hospitals. This provided an increased capacity
of 416 beds and 634 ventilators to cater to the
increasing numbers of patients diagnosed with
COVID-19.

To further increase our ICU capacity, general
wards were converted (repurposed) to ICU
facilities. Two university hospitals namely
University Malaya Medical Center (UMMC)
and Hospital Canselor Tuanku Mukhriz (HCTM)
also supported the Ministry of Health Malaysia
(MOH) to provide critical care services. During
the third wave, the number of ICU beds for 1. Hospital wards before converted into ICU in
COVID-19 were increased to 500 beds and 1 2 Hospital Enche Besar Hjh Khalsom Kluang
ventilators to 1542. 3 2. Anaesthetist in Hospital Kuala Lumpur
setting up ventilator after intubation of
patient
4 3. Fully converted (repurposed) ICU in
Hospital Enche Besar Hjh Khalsom Kluang
4. ICU team Hospital Kuala Lumpur preparing
to intubate patient

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