Hospital staff invent RM300 tool to move Covid-19 patients

KOTA BHARU: Staff of Universiti Sains Malaysia Hospital in Kubang Kerian have invented a RM300 tool using everyday items to protect medical staff and patients being transferred between wards.

Hospital director Prof Dr Ahmad Sukari Halim said the Covid Transport Tool, or Covid-TT, had been made using everyday cheap items such as PVC pipes, thick clear plastic, rubber gloves, tape, gum, HEPA filter, vacuum pump, and recycled ‘valve trocar laparoscopic disc’ and circuit tubes, all at a cost of RM300.

Due to the difficulty of getting material to produce the Covid-TT, only one set had been made, but the hospital hopes to produce a second set soon.

“Covid-TT is simple and cheap compared to the ‘patient isolation and transportation’ pod (isopod which costs between RM30,000 and RM40,000 each,” he said.

He said Covid-TT was designed by nurses and health assistants, with the cooperation of staff in other departments, and produced by operations theatre staff.

He said it was the brainchild of the head of anaesthesiology, Dr Wan Mohd Nazaruddin Wan Hassan and operations room co-ordinator, Dr Rhendra Hardy Mohamad Zaini.

Covid-TT can help prevent contamination to the environment when patients are transferred between specialist and intensive care wards.

“It functions by maintaining a negative pressure environment during the transfer process,” he said.

“It can protect the safety of the health workers who handle patients under investigation and those with severe respiratory infections, and ensure that patients and staff are not exposed to a dangerous environment.