Bed To Resident Ratio In Melaka Hospitals Better Than National Average Ratio

MELAKA, Nov 28 (Bernama) -- The ratio of hospital beds to residents in Melaka is 2.21 beds to 1,000 people, which is better than the national average ratio of 2.01 to 1,000 residents.

State Health, Human Resources and Unity Committee chairman Ngwe Hee Sem said that until October this year, Melaka had 2,212 (hospital) beds in government and private hospitals.

"Among measures taken to increase the number of beds in hospitals, include the Melaka Hospital which received a donation of 42 beds from MERCY Malaysia and channelled through Maybank on Oct 18, bringing the total number of beds in the hospital to 1,143 units," he said at the Melaka State Legislative Assembly in Seri Negeri here today.

"Apart from this, the Melaka cluster hospitals involve the sharing of human resources and medical equipment involving three Ministry of Health (MoH) hospitals (Melaka Hospital, Alor Gajah Hospital and Jasin Hospital) in the state which means if the need arises then patients can be transferred to any of these hospitals depending on which has available beds."

Ngwe said this in response to a question from Leng Chau Yen (PH-Bandar Hilir) who wanted to know about the bed shortage issue in the Melaka Hospital and the steps being taken by the state government to address this matter.

Ngwe, who is also the Barisan National state assemblyman for Machap Jaya, said the Melaka Hospital has also improved its efficiency of bed management in the hospital by creating a Bed Management Unit (BMU) to enable patients (in wards) to be discharged more smoothly as well as to shorten the processing time of patients being admitted into wards.

He said the construction of the Women and Child Centre (WCC) in the Melaka Hospital has also been approved and preliminary work has been completed and once the WCC is ready, there will be an increased capacity of an additional 476 beds in the Melaka Hospital.

He said the state government is continuously liaising with the Melaka Health Department about related issues, and the Melaka Hospital always monitors the status of bed usage through the online dashboard of the Health Information System (HIS@KKM) and Medical Program Information System (MPIS).

"Until Nov 8 (this year), there have been no official complaints received by the Melaka Hospital related to the shortage of hospital beds, however, from time to time if there is a long waiting period for ward admissions, then the hospital will take the appropriate action.

"A patient's treatment will continue at the Emergency and Trauma Department by the respective specialists while waiting for the patient to be admitted to the ward," he added.

--BERNAMA