Our Nation’s Fight: The Race Against Time

“We are currently underfunded, understaffed, underpaid, overworked, overstretched, and our facilities overcrowded with patients.” The above was posted by our Director General of Health, Noor Hisham Abdullah. Not today, not yesterday. Not in recent times. This was on his social media page, in July 2019. Today, two years down the road, much is left to be said. DG Noor Hisham’s call for healthcare professionals to stay true to their calling, remembering the oath taken, “primum non nocere” (first do no harm or injustice to our patients) is a reminder that patient’s safety and wellbeing is of utmost priority. Hospitals and healthcare workers across the nation are overwhelmed. Our healthcare system is crumbling under the strain, and frontliners are feeling the brunt of this pandemic. Incapacitated from exhaustion and fatigue, they are facing a certain level of burnout.

Nothing amiss in Malaysia? This onslaught of the 4th wave is painting a far starker image than you and I could ever imagine. One that never would have crossed the minds of young medical practitioners when they took the ‘Hippocratic Oath’ as they first stepped into the medical profession. One that is breaking them physically, mentally, and emotionally. Today, we hear them. We feel them. This is not a time to apportion blame, or find scapegoats. Now, more than ever is a time for us to put aside differences, to achieve one common goal – to help Malaysia breathe again. To make better a beaten and bruised healthcare system, and to restore the weakening trust in the system.

Malaysia is now in a dire COVID crisis. Its healthcare facilities are in desperate need of assistance. Intensive Care Units in our government hospitals are facing a severe shortage of crucial supplies such as ventilators, oxygen concentrators and tanks, beds, and medication. This is an overall deterioration, and much needs to be done. In response to this urgent need for medical supplies and equipment, BAC Education has launched CovidFund.my, another community initiative, specifically dedicated to mobilising crucial aid to our government hospitals and frontliners.

CovidFund.my aims to raise RM1 million to save the lives of COVID-19 patients in Intensive Care Units. We want to ease the pain and suffering of children and families who do not have access to vital medication and supplies.

The new Delta variant is stretching healthcare services across the country to breaking point. It truly is heart-wrenching to see families having to be separated, their only form of communication being their mobile phones, children left orphaned, patients asked to monitor themselves by self-quarantine at home, and medical practitioners having to make dreadful decisions as to who lives and dies. The pandemic is at its worst, but do not let the disillusionment distract you from the opportunity to help and support our hospitals and frontliners. I leave this here, once uttered by John F. Kennedy, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” Together, we shall overcome. #KitaJagaKita #CovidFund #GiveBack (Pictures: MalaysiaKini & FMT)