WVMC to cater to non-COVID patients in Panay

By Emme Rose Santiagudo

Despite being a dedicated coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) hospital, Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) in Mandurriao district in Iloilo City will cater to severe non-COVID patients needing urgent tertiary care starting April 13, 2020.

Assistant Secretary Gerard Anthony “Jonji” Gonzales of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Visayas (OPAV), said they decided to open WVMC upon recommendation of Deparment of Health (DOH) 6 and supported by DOH Central Visayas (Region 7).

“WVMC is the only tertiary government hospital that could provide medical care to non-COVID and COVID cases in Western Visayas aside from West Visayas State University Medical Center (WVSUMC),” he said in a press conference on Tuesday.

Dr. Marlyn Convocar, DOH-6 regional director, said this move will prevent the displacement of indigents needing tertiary medical care.

“With this protocol, we can prevent the displacement of indigent patients with severe medical cases,” she said.

DOH-6 and DOH-7 are under twinning arrangement following the memorandum issued by Health Undersecretary Adbullah Dumama Jr.

WVMC has also been tapped as a dedicated COVID-19 hospital for patients with severe cases.

Convocar said WVMC will dedicate 100 of its 450 beds to COVID-19 cases.

In a statement, Dr. Joseph Dean Nicolo chief of WVMC, said the hospital will accept patients requiring tertiary health care under the Internal Medicine and Obstetrics-Gynecology Department.

“Other departments are now ready to accept extreme emergency cases or life-threatening cases only. We ask everybody to remain patient as we gradually make our services available to the general public based on our capacity as a dedicated COVID-19 and non-COVID hospital,” he said.

Gonzales said it was agreed that the city and province of Iloilo will open its borders to allow the transport of patients from other provinces needing urgent care to WVMC.

“I talked with Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. to allow patients coming from other provinces to be allowed to pass through borders provided that they follow the strict protocol that will be imposed by the DOH in transporting the patients. I am glad that he agreed,” he said.