KUALA LUMPUR: The Tuanku Mizan Armed Forces Hospital is ready to accept critical Covid-19 patients from tonight.
Armed Forces Health Services Division director-general Lieutenant-General Datuk Dr Zulkeffeli Mat Jusoh said patients would be placed at its dedicated Disaster Management Zone (DMZ) at its basement Level 2.
"We have completed sanitising the facility with a dry-run and are able to accept patients by tonight," he said.
The facility, he added, had been previously used to treat patients suffering from the H1N1 Influenza, a communicable virus that became a respiratory pandemic in 2009.
It is learnt that after the H1N1 Influenza A had subsided, the hospital had optimised the space as a temporary carpark for its staff and patients.
All vehicles have since been removed to accommodate the latest development.
The New Straits Times has learnt that the "designated disaster preparedness zone" has ready facilities for ventilation and breathing complete with built-in oxygen supply, medical equipment and devices. suction and power plugs to accommodate Stage 3 and 4 Covid-19 patients.
The facility is expected to meet the acute shortage of beds faced by public and government hospitals, particularly Kuala Lumpur Hospital, Sungai Buloh Hospital and other medical centres in the Klang Valley, to treat Covid-19 patients.
The NST understands that the facility is capable of accommodating up to 64 newly-purchased medical beds, including 16 for intensive care (ICU).
Apart from treating Covid-19 patients, the facility can be used to control infectious diseases, biological threats and clinical training.
The hospital is believed to have roped in additional medical staff, nurses and doctors from other health facilities, as well as newly-recruited staff through the Health Ministry.
The armed forces has also mobilised field hospitals elsewhere to support the need for more Covid-19 treatment facilities.
Earlier today, Armed Forces chief General Tan Sri Affendi Buang visited the hospital to have a first-hand look at the preparation of the DMZ.
The DMZ was facilitated by the Health Ministry and the National Disaster Management Agency.
Affendi said the DMZ was specially designed and gazetted since the hospital's construction in 2009 to cater for chemical and biological disaster cases.
He said the DMZ was fully equipped with electrical supply, oxygen and vacuum ports and other medical support facilities.
The DMZ, which can accommodate up to 50 beds, is supervised by the hospital's commanding officer, Brigadier-General Datuk Dr Rosman Abdul Rahman, assisted by Lieutenant-Colonel Dr Mohamad Azlan Arrifin as its operations commander.