WVMC accreditation as COVID-19 test center nears completion

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) can start running tests for coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) by end of March 2020.

According to a report from UP Visayas Information and Publication Office, two medical technologists and four support staff from West Visayas State University (WVSU) and WVMC flew to Manila on Mar 22, 2020 to undergo a three-day training and proficiency testing at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).

The training is important as handling swab samples from persons under investigation for COVID-19 is a delicate and hazardous process.

UPV Professor Dr. Noel Ferriols of the Philippine Genome Center-UPV, Balik Scientists from the University of San Agustin (USA), and Biosafety Officers from the Philippine Science High School-Western Visayas are at the helm of the team assessing the capacities of the WVMC’s facilities and technicians for compliance and accreditation by the Department of Health.

The task force has been closely coordinating with Mayor Jerry Treñas and Dr. Roland Jay Fortuna, the focal person on COVID-19 in Iloilo City.

Over the weekend, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire confirmed that they are setting up WVMC as a COVID-19 testing center.

The DOH also tapped five subnational laboratories to process COVID-19 tests – San Lazaro Hospital, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center, Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu and Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City.

Other key figures behind the initiative to make WVMC a testing center are UPV Chancellor Ricardo Babaran, USA president Fr. Frederick Comendador and WVSU president Dr. Joselito Villaruz who approved the use of the universities’ Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (rtPCR) machines.

Metro Iloilo Hospital & Medical Center provided biosafety equipment for the testing center.

UPAA Iloilo, IAmUPHi, UP Silak Brotherhood, Rear Admiral Giovanni Carlo Bacordo of the Philippine Navy, Former PPP head Cosette Canilao, Atty. Nick Lutero of DOH, Office of Civil Defense and the Department of Health Region VI also helped in making WVMC a testing center. (With a report from www.upv.edu.ph)