KUALA LUMPUR: Extreme crowding in emergency departments of government hospitals makes the greatest impact on green triage category patients or those in non-critical zones, who are forced to wait longer than the targeted period.
Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL) emergency medical consultant Datuk Dr Alzamani Mohammad Idrose said based on the original plan, the waiting period for green-category patients is 90 minutes, but this was difficult to achieve.
"We find that it is quite difficult for (us to achieve the targeted waiting period) green category patients. However, with additional medical staff, we are targeting a 120-minute waiting time.
"This is what the Health Ministry is trying to achieve through various initiatives.
"The people must understand, (the situation) in emergency departments depends on capacity. When the input is too high, therefore priority will be given to life and death cases.
"This causes green category patients to wait longer, and this is a sign that we need more medical staff," he said, adding that the long waiting time also indicated that current capacities could not meet actual needs.
He also said to ensure that treatment is done in the targeted time period, the process of giving treatment must be accelerated, and this was where additional staff could help alleviate this burden.
Dr Alzamani said this in the Ruang Bicara programme aired on Bernama TV last night. The programme, hosted by Sherkawi Jirim, discussed congestion in emergency departments in government hospitals.
Meanwhile, Dr Alzamani said it was vital for the Health Ministry to expedite digitalisation in all government hospitals.
"I see that there is good progress, however, there is still a gap that needs to be bridged. For example, many hospitals have not gone through the process of digitalisation.
"Digitalisation really helps, especially in accelerating X-rays, CT scans, blood work results and others," he added.