Its minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, noted that the capacity of OTs in the Penang Hospital was very limited as many have been modified to help facilitate the treatment of more Covid-19 patients.

“There is an urgent need to carry out critical surgeries. Therefore, we have decided to not only outsource patients but also rent OTs from private hospitals.

“The surgeries will be performed by surgeons from the general hospital,” he told reporters after a visit to the Penang Hospital today.

Currently, certain elective surgeries are outsourced to private hospitals and the government pays for them.

Khairy said he would ask the health ministry’s secretary-general Mohd Shafiq Abdullah to consult with all private hospitals in Penang quickly on this.

He added that many private hospitals in the state had refused to accept high-risk surgeries as they did not want to bear the possible risks.

However, he said doctors from the general hospital were willing to help perform these surgeries in the private hospitals’ OTs instead.

Khairy announced the approval of a field hospital outside Penang Hospital to provide an extra 100 beds, equipped with oxygen supply.

“The health ministry and the armed forces have already visited the site. We will expedite the construction of this field hospital.”

Khairy said the number of virtual Covid-19 assessment centres (CACs) will be increased.

He thanked the state government for setting up call centres to help monitor those quarantined at home.