Mahkota Medical Centre (Mahkota) in Melaka and Regency Specialist Hospital (Regency) in Johor, both part of regional private healthcare provider Health Management International (HMI) Group, have given their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to 825 and 573 health worker frontliners, respectively, in Melaka and Johor.
Both Mahkota and Regency have begun vaccinations for their employed health care personnel as part of HMI Group’s support for the national COVID-19 vaccination program. Both hospitals are still in the midst of their vaccination campaigns. Mahkota started their first round of vaccines on 31st March 31st, while Regency started on 12th April.
The Ministry of Health has begun collaborating with private hospitals to help speed up the vaccine administration to Malaysian frontliners. Currently, private hospitals such as Mahkota and Regency are supporting the government in vaccinating health care frontliners in their respective areas, as per the first phase of the national vaccine programme which aims to vaccinate all health care frontliners. The two hospitals have also applied to be Vaccination Centres with the Ministry of Health to further support their local communities.
“We are working closely with the Ministry of Health to support them in maximising the vaccine rollout in Melaka. The government has targeted to complete all 500,000 vaccinations nationwide for medical frontliners during the first phase. By assisting them here in Melaka, we aim to expedite the vaccinations for Phase 1 which will hopefully allow for an early start to the subsequent phases so the rest of the public will be protected sooner,” said Stanley Lam, CEO of Mahkota Medical Centre.
“While we keep our frontliners safe, we would like to remind our patients, caregivers and visitors to Mahkota that SOPs on COVID-19 prevention remain strictly enforced. This means social distancing, frequent sanitisation, and ease of access to hand sanitisers within our premises will continue to be the norm at Mahkota. We also made sure that these SOPs apply throughout the vaccination programme,” he added.
“We are honoured to support the Ministry of Health as an official COVID-19 Vaccination Centre. By doing our part here in Johor, we will accelerate the vaccination rollout for the first phase and contribute to our country’s goal of achieving herd immunity to COVID-19 by 2022. Together, we can break the chain of COVID-19,” said Serena Yong, CEO of Regency Specialist Hospital.
“Our status as a Vaccination Centre also means that we are taking safety very strictly. As part of our mandate to place our patients first in everything we do, all SOPs for visitors, patients, caregivers, and staff that have been put into place since the start of the first MCO will remain in effect as long as we are fighting this pandemic,” she added.
The World Health Organisation’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) has recommended that frontline health care workers who are at high risk of infection, older adults, and people at high risk of death due to conditions such as non-communicable diseases (NCDs), should be prioritised in the early phases of vaccination.
In Malaysia, Phase 2 will take place from April to August 2021, targeting about 9.4 million senior citizens aged 60 and above and other high-risk groups. Phase 3, scheduled to begin from May 2021 until February 2022, will be directed at vaccinating about 13.7 million people aged 18 and above and will include Malaysian citizens and non-citizens.
Mahkota Medical Centre and Regency Specialist Hospital are both committed to their responsibility as healthcare providers to continue prioritising the needs of their patients during this pandemic while encouraging the adoption of vaccines as the way forward to curb the spread of COVID-19.
