critical care services, led
Fighting pandemic a
team effort
Thursday, 18 Mar 2021
GEORGE TOWN: Frontliners, especially
the young medical officers, have forged a
special bond among themselves as a
result of the unprecedented health crisis
of Covid-19, says Dr Chow Ting Soo.
The Penang Hospital infectious diseases
consultant said these were among the
positives drawn from battling the
pandemic that forced the country into a
lockdown exactly one year ago.
Medical officers from the
psychiatry department,
surgical department, ear,
nose and throat (ENT)
department, orthopaedic
department and other
departments had been
working closely among each other, she
said.
“Medical frontliners have forged a special
bond among themselves in the last 12
months.
“They come from different backgrounds
but work closely as a team in tackling the
outbreak.
“When a patient needs further
assessment from another unit, the
medical officers will work together and
manage the case as a whole with a
holistic approach.
“I am very proud of these young doctors
who have served their duty well. They are
keen to learn, hardworking, responsible
and cooperative (and) not to forget, their
sense of humour as well.
“The outcome saw Penang having one of
the lowest fatality rates in the country, ”
said Dr Chow, who is spearheading a
team of 16 physicians and pharmacists
as part of a global research to counter
Covid-19 under a World
Health Organisation
(WHO) initiative.
She also singled out
by Datuk Dr Lim Chew
Har and her team, for
praise.
When facing a prolonged and large-scale
pandemic, Dr Chow said one of the
challenges was the lack of isolation
facilities, personal protective equipment
and intensive care unit (ICU) beds.
“I hope this pandemic will prepare us
better for future threats.
“More efforts in building more isolation
facilities equipped with standalone ICU
care and support services must be put in,
especially in each state, ” she said,
adding that the country would also need
“Only vaccines deemed
safe will be used for
mass vaccination
programmes.”
to train more experts in the field of
infectious diseases.
She also urged the public to register for
the National Covid-19 Immunisation
Programme.
“Getting vaccination is the way to end the
pandemic in years to come. If the public
want their normal life back, the country
needs to have 70% to 80% of the
population to be vaccinated.
“If we want to acquire immunity through
natural infection, then there will be a lot of
deaths before we can survive the disease
through herd immunity,” she said, adding
that all the vaccines under the
programme had
been approved by
the authorities and
government.
“I hope the public
can understand
that the process of
getting a vaccine to
be registered and
approved by the authorities is very
stringent.