BACOLOD City – This city is currently facing a dearth of nurses and hospital beds to accommodate coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients.
According to Dr. Ria Cocjin of the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (PSMID) here, the ratio of nurses to patients is one to three.
She also revealed that a private hospital here has only three to five nurses taking care of 15 COVID patients.
“Right now makita mo man puno gid ang mga hospitals…There are also hospitals that have 15 to 50 patients in the waiting list for admission,” she said.
According to City Administrator Em Ang, executive director of the city Emergency Operations Center (EOC) here, they have already asked for augmentation from the national government.
Meanwhile, Dr. Dolores Rommela Ruiz, also of the PSMID, said most cases were detected within family members and people in a group.
“And we are treating more severe and critical cases which overwhelm the hospital system,” Ruiz added.
“Seeing severe and critical cases is actually a reflection that we are not really controlling the spread of infection from the start .We are not effective in doing what we should be doing,” she lamented.
“Based on history, the cases are due to the poor implementation (of health protocols)… People are also complacent of what should be done to prevent the transmission of infection,” Ruiz added./PN
