ILOILO City – As local government units across Region 6 scramble to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), various societies of doctors in Western Visayas warned of a possible shortage in healthcare frontliners.
They have a suggestion: designate a hospital solely dedicated to attending COVID-19 cases.
“The shortage of frontliners can be reasonably foreseen and a scenario that cannot be avoided, if ever patients are not confined to specified hospitals,” according to the doctors in a letter to Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr.
Having a hospital solely dedicated to COVID-19 cases will ensure that infections are contained and constraints to resources are minimized, according to the doctors.
In this city and Iloilo province, the doctors identified the Western Visayas Sanitarium (WVS) in Santa Barbara town as possible COVID-19-dedicated health facility.
WVS is under the supervision of the Department of Health (DOH).
“These are desperate times that call for desperate solutions. We should all be helping each other by making the most of what we have to mitigate the spread of this disease,” read part of the doctors’ letter.
They expounded their suggestion:
* Admitting patients to this single, dedicated health facility significantly contributes to the containment of cases, an imperative move to limit the continued spread.
* The number of healthcare personnel put at risk is kept to a low number, thus ensuring that there shall be available manpower from other health facilities, both public and private, to augment should need arises.
* WVS is relatively isolated in location, but geographically accessible.
* Quarters be provided in the hospital compound for physicians who go on duty at the WVS
* WVS has the existing functional facilities. With the institution under the supervision and control of DOH, putting up additional equipment and manpower is expedited.
* As a DOH-retained hospital, WVS can avail itself of the services of infectious disease specialists from the Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC).
‘WE CAN SOLVE THIS’
“We in the medical profession are willing to do our part. Together, as one, we can solve this health emergency and come out stronger,” according to the doctors.
They made several suggestions on how local government units should handle COVID-19 cases or suspected cases:
* Under the current DOH protocol, mild PUIs (patients under investigation) with stable co-morbidities may be admitted to level 1 hospitals, to which WVS belongs.
* Moderate to severe PUIs must be referred to Level 2 and Level 3 hospitals which include WVMC, a tertiary level, 400- bed capacity hospital and also under the jurisdiction of DOH.
* West Visayas State University Medical Center (WVSUMC) can focus its resources on non -COVID-19 cases and shall absorbed patients from WVMC in case of a surge patients.
* Private hospitals can also allocate their service rooms to non-COVID-19 patients, if needed.
* Private hospitals, although Level 2 and Level 3 hospitals, have very limited rooms that can be allocated to the COVID-19 patients, and the resources are better reserved for other critical patients.
“The province and city of Iloilo, in the exigency of service, may mobilize doctors to go on duty in the identified hospitals, and that private physicians are ready to answer the call for service should the circumstances demand,” the doctors added.
The letter was from the Iloilo Medical Society led by Dr. Jesus Eugenio Garin de Jesus and the Philippines Medical Association.
It was also signed by the following:
* Philippine College of Surgeons Panay Chapter – Dr. Roy Joseph Trinidad, president
* Philippine Society of General Surgeons Panay Chapter – Dr. Carol Joy Quimpo, president
* Philippine College of Physicians Western Visayas Chapter – Dr. Shella Mae Sonza, president
* Philippine Society of Anesthesiologists Iloilo Panay Chapter – Dr. Maria Soccoro Felisarta, president
* Philippine Pediatric Society Western Visayas Chapter – Dr. Joselito Caso, president
* Philippine Obstetrics and Gynecologic Society – Dr. Nora Gepulle, president
Defensor welcomed the doctors’ suggestion and said he and Iloilo City’s Mayor Jerry Treñas, and DOH Region 6 already identified WVS as designated hospital for PUIs in case WVMC could not handle them anymore.
The provincial government, he said, has started addressing the needs of WVS to make it more equipped./PN