KUALA LUMPUR: As of Sept 1, some 57,355 surgeries and medical procedures had to be deferred to enable healthcare workers in government healthcare facilities to focus on treating Covid-19 patients.
Despite having outsourced non-Covid-19 patients to private hospitals since 2020, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the backlog on non-Covid-19 cases are still high due to a shortage of private hospitals in some states and lack of expertise in some private facilities.
"A total of 53,785 backlogged cases (93.8 per cent) include general surgery, urology, paediatric surgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, gynaecology, orthopaedics and ophthalmology.
"Of the total, 52,373 cases (97.4 per cent) are non-cancer surgeries while another 1,412 cases (2.6 per cent) are cancer surgeries.
"Another 3,570 backlogged cases (6.2 per cent) are medical-based procedures, that include Arteriovenous Fistula Creation, angioplasty, angiogram, pacemaker insertion, sleep study, lung function test, bronchoscopy and pleuroscopy, stem cell transplant, nuclear medicine scans, radiotherapy and CT simulation.
"Of that total, 2,964 cases (83 per cent) are non-cancer cases, 534 are cancer cases (15 per cent) while another 72 cases (2 per cent) involve transplant procedures.
"At the moment, most of the public hospitals are designated for Covid-19 treatment and anaesthesiologists as well as support staff such as nurses being required to treat Covid-19 patients.
"Operation theatres have also been repurposed as Intensive Care Units (ICUs) for Covid-19 treatment and surgeries cannot be performed due to that," he said, during a special press conference held at the ministry today.
As of August 31, Khairy said 38 public hospitals and 68 private hospitals have participated in the outsourcing exercise nationwide and successfully completed 6,623 surgeries and medical procedures.
The government, he said, has spent RM26.2 million on the outsourcing initiative and has allocated RM26.4 million to continue outsourcing cardiology and cardiothoracic services to the National Heart Institute.
Khairy said expanding the outsourcing initiative, reopening the repurposed operation theatres in stages and extending the operation hours for surgeries on Saturdays from five hours to eight hours are among methods that are being considered to resolve the backlog.
Apart from that, he said the ministry is also seeking assistance by discussing with field hospitals by the armed forces and teaching hospitals on this matter.
On another development, Khairy said that he will announce several additional measures soon for the public to adapt and live with Covid-19.
This, he said, was in line with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob's announcement to allow resumption of interstate travel once 90 per cent of the country's adult population gets vaccinated.
Khairy also said that the ministry was working on a number of solutions to ease the usage of the "Check-Out" feature for MySejahtera users.
"The aim of the feature is to get more accurate information of an individual's location within a specific duration. The intention (of the feature) is good but we will have to enhance the implementation," he added.