Hospitals ‘close’ doors to patients as staff contract COVID

Two hospitals in Iloilo City and province suspended some services after some of their medical staff were infected with COVID-19.

The Iloilo provincial government confirmed on Tuesday that the Ramon Duremdes District Hospital (RDDH) in Dumangas town will not admit patients for the moment after several of its personnel contracted the disease.

The RDDH announced on Monday (Sept. 13) that it would cease to admit patients for admission until further notice.

Its Out-Patient Department (OPD) and Animal Bite Treatment Center (ABTC) have also been temporarily closed and will resume service on Sept. 20.

Dumangas Mayor Ronaldo Golez confirmed to Super Radyo Iloilo that 5 nurses tested positive for COVID-19.

Iloilo Provincial Administrator Suzette Mamon also told Aksyon Radyo Iloilo that four doctors and several nurses yielded positive results for COVID-19.

Personnel who tested positive are now under quarantine and identified close contacts in the hospitals have been subjected to swab testing.

She said that the provincial government has not received reports on the source of the infection but inferred that this may be due to local transmission in the town.

Mamon added, however, that the closures at the RDDH were gradual since the posting was made on Monday and contact tracing already underway.

She added that the hospital’s ABTC will already reopen sooner after contact tracing has been completed.

“Right now, [RDDH] has been able to manage, maybe they can admit now, and it’s just a work in progress. They are just doing it in a sequence. There are areas with those infected who cannot accept patients,” Mamon said.

Meanwhile, Iloilo Doctors Hospital Inc. (IDH) in Iloilo City suspended its outpatient department (OPD) consultation services and emergency admissions due to Covid-19 infection among its personnel.

According to Dr. Alejandro Emmanuel Rivera president of IDH, they decided to stop some of the services of the hospitals after nurses assigned in its emergency room have been infected with Covid-19.

“Due to the infection of our Emergency Room nurses, we would like to inform you that we will be temporarily suspending our OPD consultation services and emergency admissions,” he said in a letter addressed to Mayor Jerry Treñas on Sept. 13.

Meanwhile, the hospital will continue to cater their scheduled OPD Covid Care packages and accept selective admission of patients with orders from attending physicians.

“We will do our best to resume our regular operations as soon as we can complete the required number of nurses for this area.”

Last August, the hospital also stopped admitting Covid-19 patients for three days after seven of its nurses contracted Covid-19.

Treñas has appealed to the public to stay at home if possible as operations of city hospitals have become limited due to infection of their health frontliners and lack of healthcare workers.

“Many hospitals are presently operating on limited capacity and some have closed operations on certain services due to infection of their health frontliners and need for additional health workers. Cases are still rising and I am requesting everyone to remain at home if it is still possible,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

The mayor also urged Ilonggos to get themselves vaccinated with vaccines readily available in the city’s vaccination centers. (Joseph B.A. Marzan and ERS)