Private hospitals feel brunt of dengue surge

By: Emme Rose Santiagudo

PRIVATE hospitals in Iloilo City are feeling the brunt of the dengue outbreak in Panay

These hospitals are currently in need of more medical personnel to attend dengue patients who could not be accommodated by the jam-packed district and provincial hospitals in Iloilo.

City Councilor Alan Zaldivar, Committee on Health chair, echoed the needs of the private hospitals during a dialogue on Friday.

According to Zaldivar, there are enough hospital beds and rooms in the private hospitals, however, they are struggling to accommodate dengue patients with their limited manpower.

“We encourage the hospitals, ila na responsibility ang pag-accept sang pasyente and they are willing to accept patients. May available sila hospital beds and all, ang ila lang ginaproblemahan ang manpower,” he said in a phone interview.

Zaldivar said private hospitals in the metro have committed to accommodate dengue patients, provided that they have enough manpower to ensure quality health services.

“Ready sila mag-accommodate, as long as they have manpower and enough beds and rooms. They need manpower to provide quality services,” he said.

 

OVERCROWDED HOSPITALS

In Iloilo province, all 12 district and provincial hospitals are already overcrowded and have exceeded their bed capacities, according to the Provincial Hospital Management Office (HMO) Officer-in-Charge Dr. Cynthia Ng.

“It is crowded. All hospitals in the province are crowded because over na ang capacity but again we are trying with the chiefs to cope with the number especially with the leadership of Gov. Defensor Jr.,” she said in an interview on Friday.

As of July 19, 2010, a total of 1,140 dengue patients were admitted in provincial and district hospitals which only have a total bed capacity of 590.

The towns of Maasin and Balasan have already converted their respective covered gyms to serve as temporary hospitals for dengue patients.

According to Ng, they are trying to cope with the situation amid the difficulties on limited space and manpower.

“We are trying to cope up with the situation. We make sure we accommodate, treat and cater to their needs maskin budlay. It’s the call of the rural health units (RHUs) kun ibutang sa gym they should follow rules set forth by the Department of Health (DOH),” she said.

While the private hospitals committed to assist the province with the overflowing dengue patients, Ng underscored that the private hospitals, too, are suffering from overcapacity and limited manpower.

“Nag-meet si governor sa ila last week and they committed to assist but we have to understand nga ang private hospitals are also overworked and over in capacity,” she lamented.

Meanwhile, Zaldivar said that he will seek the help of the health department for the possible augmentation of manpower on the private hospitals.

“Ihatag ta ang concern sang private hospitals, if pwede ang DOH maka-augment manpower sa mga hospitals,” he said.

Zaldivar also underscored his plan to empower barangay health centers to cater in assessing the dengue patients.

“Among the suggestion during our dialogue nga tani nga sa barangay pa lang nga level mabal-an nga if there is a need man gid to admit the dengue patients. We need to go down to that level nga as early pa lang sa ila level, ma-assess na nila ang situation,” he said.

In relation to this, Zaldivar said that they will conduct an inventory of barangay and district health centers in the metro next week to identify their needs.

“We will conduct an inventory sa barangay health centers kun ano ang kakulangan same with district health centers. We need to empower barangay health centers kelangan barangay level pa lang na assess na ila situation,” he said.

Meanwhile in the province, Ng said that they are exhausting all their budget and resources to provide the needs of the hospitals in the province.

“We are exhausting all our budget and tanan nga resources. We are hoping ma-amat amat na nubo ang mga cases,” she said.

Data from the Department of Health-Center for Health Development (DOH-CHD)-6 showed that the region recorded 18,834 dengue cases with 94 deaths from January to July 19, 2019.

As of July 13, dengue cases in Iloilo province totaled 6,783 with 23 deaths.