ICU capacities at hospitals unlikely to be overwhelmed: Expert
Hospitals have measures to deal with surge in serious cases, and vaccination rate is rising
Serious Covid-19 cases are unlikely to overwhelm the intensive care unit (ICU) capacity in Singapore, as hospitals work to strike a balance between the needs of severe coronavirus cases and other critical care patients.
In an interview with The Straits Times, Professor Dale Fisher, a senior consultant in infectious diseases at National University Hospital, said hospitals have measures to deal with the potential surge in high-risk or serious cases.
They involve managing the beds for these patients, the supply of personal protective equipment, ventilators and drugs, as well as the staff needed to care for them.
He also pointed to the vaccination rate in Singapore - as at Wednesday, 73 per cent of the population had been fully vaccinated. Fully vaccinated people are less likely to fall seriously ill.
"It is almost impossible for our capacities to become exhausted because it is a very controlled situation," said Prof Fisher.
"We watch daily how many people have severe disease. We also see most recover and we know also that each day, over 50,000 people are having their second jab, thereby approaching full immunity status."
But one area of concern remains - the elderly.
Ministry of Health figures show that as at Aug 5, about 80,000 of those aged 70 and above had yet to be vaccinated.
Prof Fisher said hospitals can make some predictions by seeing the number of elderly unvaccinated patients with mild disease. He added that it takes about a week for severe disease to show.
INDICATORS
"If any of these indicators reach concerning levels, then we could see strengthened community measures," he said.
As at yesterday, there were 470 Covid-19 patients in hospital, including 36 who required oxygen supplementation and nine in the ICU.
Hospitals had started planning for more Covid-19 beds after large clusters emerged, fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant.
At Alexandra Hospital, two wards were turned into Covid-19 wards between late April and last month.
Its chief operating officer Jeffrey Chun said the hospital will also renovate a general ward early next year to equip it with negative pressure rooms that can be quickly turned into ICU rooms for Covid-19 patients.
At Singapore General Hospital (SGH), some non-urgent elective procedures are being rescheduled to create capacity for clinical care.
Associate Professor Ruban Poopalalingam, chairman of SGH's medical board, said: "This allows us greater flexibility to deploy manpower to support areas with pressing needs."
The hospital, he added, can quickly turn rooms into negative pressure ones by installing a portable anteroom, should isolation rooms or wards be fully occupied.
SGH has another 50 isolation units at Ward@Bowyer, the facility it built last year at an open-air carpark on hospital grounds.
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