Its president Dr Subramaniam Muniandy said information from the ground on bed occupancy in hospitals, quarantine centres and intensive care units (ICU), especially in red zones, did not correspond with the figures presented during the ministry’s daily press conference.

He called on the ministry to present a breakdown of the statistics, as higher bed usage at hospitals, quarantine centres and the ICU in red zones could be masked by reduced occupancy at other centres.

“Presenting the statistics by using an average percentage for the entire state provides a false sense of security and dampens the urgency of the situation,

“State Local Government and Housing Minister Masidi Manjun was reported saying 99.5% of the beds in Sabah were filled on Oct 22. This is in vast contrast to the numbers presented by the health ministry lately,” he said in a statement.

Subramaniam said it was impractical to utilise ICU beds at hospitals in other districts, as was difficult to transport a critically ill Covid-19 patient on respiratory assistance without putting others and the patient at risk.

He suggested that the ministry make use of emergency funds to recruit more quarantine centres or hotels at red zones to accommodate the increasing demand, noting that there was a lack of vehicles to transport positive cases to treatment centres.

He also called on the ministry to consider mobilising more medical equipment such as syringe pumps, vital signs monitoring devices and powered air-purifying respirators to Sabah.

“MMA suggests that the ministry pool these items that were procured during the first and second waves in other parts of the country and mobilise them to be sent to Sabah immediately for use during this outbreak, and use the emergency funds to purchase other equipment and machines required which are not available.

“These items can then be mobilised back to other states as the need arises once the outbreak in Sabah is controlled.”

Another option, said Subramaniam, was to recruit general practitioners in the private sector for a nominal fee, while still allowing patients to obtain prescribed medicines from government pharmacies.

He added that MMA had raised RM1.2 million to purchase medical items through the MMA Sabah Covid-19 Fund and that this would be delivered to the Sabah Health Department in the next few days.

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