Page 112 - MALAYSIA HEALTH SECTOR RESPONSE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC: PERSPECTIVES FROM THE FIELD

The “Benteng” operation did help to reduce the entry of these
undocumented migrants into Sarawak; however, it did not solve the problem
completely, partly due to the long borders and existence of illegal
alternative routes or “Jalan Tikus”, coupled with locals acting as skippers
or ‘tekong’, who smuggled in these undocumented migrants .
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5.2.2 Hospital Responses

a. Designation of hospitals
2,
Due to its vast land area of 73,620 km which is more than twice the size
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of Pahang , Sabah on its own has a total of 24 government hospitals to serve
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its population . Led by six specialist hospitals which have been designated
as COVID-19 hybrid hospitals, all these hospitals were grouped into 6 cluster
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hospital groups based on their locations (Queen Elizabeth I Hospital, Sabah
Women and Children Hospital (SWACH), Tawau Hospital, Duchess of Kent
Hospital, Lahad Datu Hospital and Keningau Hospital). For example, the
Tawau Cluster Hospital consisted of the lead Tawau Hospital with specialists
and other district hospitals in Kunak, Semporna, and Lahad Datu (Figure
5.9).

The roles of hospitals in Sabah were modified and reassigned to adapt to
the third wave. In Kota Kinabalu, Queen Elizabeth I Hospital was assigned
to manage adult COVID-19 patients, while SWACH was assigned to manage
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paediatric COVID-19 patients . Non-COVID-19 patients in the region were
all diverted to Queen Elizabeth II Hospital . On the other hand, as Tawau
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Hospital is the referral hospital for the east Sabah region, the hospital took
on the role of managing both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 cases .
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During the first and second COVID-19 pandemic waves in Sabah, all COVID-
19 patients were admitted to these COVID-19 hybrid hospitals . However,
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as the number of COVID-19 cases rocketed in the third wave, the designated
COVID-19 hybrid hospitals had reached their full capacity and were unable
to accept new COVID-19 patients. Besides, the need for transporting COVID-
19 patients from the district hospitals to the COVID-19 hybrid hospitals had
become more frequent, driving the hospital ambulance services to function
at their full capacity, affecting its availability to attend to other non-COVID-
19 cases. To ease the COVID-19 hybrid hospitals' workload burden, only
COVID-19 patients with category 3 and above were sent to these COVID-19
hybrid hospitals. On the other hand, category 1 and 2 COVID-19 cases were
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treated at local district hospitals (without specialists) and PKRCs .
76 BATTLING THE THIRD COVID-19 WAVE IN MALAYSIA
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