[UPDATED at 11:10pm: Statement from MOH added]

To free up public hospitals so they can take care of more serious cases, 29 Covid-19 patients were on Monday (March 23) transferred to Mount Elizabeth Hospital on Orchard Road.

They were all previously warded in isolation at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).

Other Parkway hospitals on high alert to receive more in future

According to Noel Yeo, senior vice president of hospital operations for Parkway Pantai's Singapore operations division, the hospital is the first of four Parkway hospitals to receive and ward Covid-19 patients.

In his statement shared with Mothership, Yeo said Parkway Pantai has been working closely with the Ministry of Health (MOH) in the national effort against Covid-19.

He added that the private healthcare provider and the ministry have been discussing further ways for private sector resources to be utilised so as to alleviate the load on public healthcare institutions.

He also noted that Parkway Pantai's other three hospitals — Gleneagles, Mount Elizabeth Novena and Parkway East Hospital — have been put on alert to receive more recovering Covid-19 patients in the future.

"We hope other private healthcare providers will also rise to the call and play their part to complement these efforts," he said.

Hospitals apply "stringent safety protocols"

Yeo said prior to the transfer of these 29 patients from the NCID, the medical company has already been "actively managing" Covid-19 patients in several of its facilities.

And for these new patients, the same stringent safety protocols and precautionary measures will apply as well, he added.

These new patients will be staying at a single ward at the hospital.

Here are the additional safety measures Mount Elizabeth Hospital is taking:

• Patients are not permitted to leave the ward and visitors are strictly not allowed;
• All staff working in these areas are required to put on all appropriate protective apparel; and
• The areas that these patients pass through during the transfer will go through proper cleaning and sanitisation.

According to a statement released by MOH on Monday night, March 23, the ministry has put in place plans to expand its hospital and clinical services capacities to deal with increasing demand as the number of Covid-19 cases rise globally.

MOH has activated a collaboration between public and private hospitals to transfer well and stable Covid-19 patients to selected private hospitals in order to free up capacity in the public sector for the management of more severe cases.

MOH said that over the past three days, in addition to the 29 patients transferred to Mount Elizabeth Hospital from the NCID, 20 patients were also transferred to Concord International Hospital from the NCID. 

MOH added that the transferred patients are "generally well", and will remain at these private hospitals until they have fully recovered and have tested negative for Covid-19 for two consecutive tests over a 24-hour period.

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