PETALING JAYA: The resources are already there to help the government boost the Covid-19 vaccination drive.
All that needs to be done is to deploy them with efficiency, according to medical experts.
For instance, consultant paediatrician and neonatologist Datuk Dr Musa Mohd Nordin pointed out, the Health Ministry is still not utilising the network of health clinics that already have a good coverage of the entire population.
Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Datuk Dr M. Subramaniam said the government should also step up the use of private hospitals and general practitioners (GPs) to reach more people.
They were responding to criticisms by Special Functions Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof of the government’s poor handling of the vaccination drive.
He said the authorities should utilise existing facilities nationwide to expedite the vaccination drive.
He also questioned the rationale of spending hundreds of million of ringgit to set up mega vaccination centres when the government is already facing the challenge of a fiscal deficit.
Musa said vaccination centres set up by the government should meet the needs of the people. One important criterion, he added, is to ensure that they are easily accessible.
“This is especially critical given the surge in Covid-19 infection. We need to get the vaccines into the arms of eligible persons as fast as possible. We are just playing catch-up now,” he told theSun.
He said mega centres work well for people living in urban areas and have easy access to such venues.
However, he said, poor planning and lack of thought have led to overcrowding at these centres, raising the risk of transmission of the virus.
On the other hand, Musa said, steps must also be taken to ensure that people do not have to travel long distances just to get vaccinated. “For instance, it is neither smart nor practical for someone who lives in Muar to travel all the way to a mega centre Johor Baru (168km away by road),” he said.
In this case, he said, the community hall in Muar can be turned into a vaccination centre.
“The Committee on Ensuring Access to Covid-19 Supply is also not utilising the health centres as vaccination centres,” he said.
He pointed out that apart from tetanus shots for expectant mothers, no vaccines are available under the national immunisation programme.
“Adults have to go to their family physicians or private hospitals for their pneumococcal, influenza and shingles vaccines. The private practitioners all over the country have been providing this service since the 1950s.”
Musa said the government should have engaged all GPs and private hospitals early in the vaccine programme.
MMA’s Subramaniam said mega centres are good only if there is proper crowd control and appointments spaced out.
“We must also not disregard the possibility that twice as many people will be at the centre, given that older folks especially will usually be accompanied by a family member or caregiver,” he told theSun.
He said that if there is poor crowd control, the risk of infection will rise.
Subramaniam said getting more GPs on board the NIP will speed up vaccination, as proven in other countries.
“GPs are well distributed across the country. Even if we use just 5,000 of the 8,000 available now, we can vaccinate an additional 150,000 persons a day,” he said.
He added that GPs can help to ease the burden on the public healthcare system.
