Province hastens hospital upgrades

By Joseph B.A. Marzan 

The Iloilo provincial government is confident that it can handle a further surge in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases amid increased detection of the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant and Iloilo City hospitals overwhelmed by patients from the province and other parts of Panay.

Data from the Department of Health-Western Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH-WV CHD) as of August 5, 2021 indicated that Iloilo province has the highest number of COVID-19 variant cases with 62.

The number includes 19 cases of Alpha (B.1.1.7), 28 cases of Beta (B.1.351.1), 10 cases of Delta, 1 case of Gamma (P.1), and 2 cases of Theta (P.3).

The latest hospital utilization data from the Iloilo City Health Office as of August 6 also showed that patients from Iloilo province accounted for 49.5 percent of COVID admissions in city hospitals. These patients occupied 45.8 percent of COVID and isolation wards and 56.8 percent of Intensive Care Units (ICU).

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas earlier lamented the “sorry” state of city hospitals due to swelling cases from Iloilo province.

The escalation of the city’s community quarantine status was also attributed to the high number of COVID-related admissions.

Provincial Administrator Atty. Suzette Mamon clarified in an interview with Aksyon Radyo Iloilo on Tuesday that the Iloilo Provincial Hospital (IPH) in Pototan town and the 12 district hospitals in the province also cater to COVID patients.

She said that since all hospitals ran by the provincial government are primary care hospitals, they cannot tend to severe and critical COVID-19 patients.

The provincial government also has a Temporary Treatment and Monitoring Facility (TTMF) at the Iloilo Sports Complex with 32 isolation rooms in a facility built by the Department of Public Works and Highways. Another 83 rooms are located inside the complex’s covered gym.

The province’s TTMF also has nurses tending to patients on a 24-hour basis, as well as 8 doctors hired by the provincial government and 6 other doctors from the DOH.

The provincial government also provided assistance through personnel and equipment complements to the Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) and West Visayas State University Medical Center (WVSUMC) in Iloilo City, and the Western Visayas Sanitarium (WVS) in Santa Barbara.

Mamon also mentioned the provincial government’s donation of Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) machines, provision of 35 complementary personnel, and ventilators and beds loaned to the WVMC, which currently serves as a COVID Referral Hospital.

She emphasized that not all patients in Iloilo City hospitals are from Iloilo province, given that the city is the designated “regional center”.

“If there are paying patients there, of course you cannot force them, they will really look for a private hospital, and the hospital cannot refuse catering to them. Insofar as to the number of patients catered in tertiary hospitals in Iloilo City, it’s not all from the province. There are also some from other provinces. We will remember that Iloilo City is the regional center so we cannot avoid the fact that [patients from other provinces] would also come here. But Iloilo province is not being laxed in stepping up our facilities,” Mamon said.

She added that the provincial government is working to increase the bed capacity of the Iloilo Provincial Hospital (IPH) by 50 percent and the district hospitals by “up to 70 percent,” based on the instruction of Governor Arthur Defensor Jr.

A hotel was recently awarded a contract to become a community isolation center with attending physicians to augment the capacity of provincial and district hospitals.

The IPH and district hospitals currently have no capacity to operate as ICUs since it would require a license from the DOH apart from the fact that only Level 2 hospitals can operate such units.

Despite the lack of a license, Mamon said that the provincial government is also expediting a Critical Care Unit (CCU) at the IPH. Procurement of equipment and expansion of personnel are also under way.

“There is no district hospital in the province not tending to patients. All of our district hospitals have [COVID patients]. In fact, that is continuous because there are COVID and non-COVID patients, so our district hospitals attend to them but only if they come from moderate to mild. We are expediting the [CCU] because for severe and critical [patients], it would boil down to clinical management,” she said.

She said their efforts aims to increase the province’s COVID response capacity and ease admissions in Iloilo City hospitals.

“Everything is a work in progress, and we’re seeking to expedite them, of course with due consideration to procurement laws so we can attend to patients here in the province of Iloilo,” she said.

As to Treñas’ remarks, she only said, “We are always respecting the opinions of our leaders in the city and province of Iloilo.”

She added that the determination of a community quarantine status should only depend on the current data available to the national government, but also the capabilities of the local governments to adapt and respond to the emerging situation.

“For us, the parameters in the determination of a quarantine status, with due respect to our national agencies, it should not be solely on the hospital care utilization. We should also be looking at the available data, like our positivity rate, our quarantine facilities, and the efforts of our health workers and leaders on how to expand on the local level. These should be looked to as a whole,” Mamon said.