Cebu hospitals lack manpower

CEBU, Philippines —  While more beds have been put up in Cebu hospitals in response to the wave of symptomatic coronavirus patients, these facilities, unfortunately, are faced with another problem – dearth of manpower.

This developed as Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella ordered for a strict monitoring of critical utilization rate in all public and private hospitals as the city returns to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

The Cebu Medical Society (CMS), a group of more than 3,000 doctors and other medical practitioners, has pointed out how the health system has become overburdened by the recent surge of new cases.

“Cebu has been afflicted with an alarming surge of new cases. We are experiencing an acceleration phase amidst an exhausted and overwhelmed health system,” the group said in a statement released yesterday.

CMS said hospitals are overwhelmed and undermanned, essential medical equipment scarce, and doctors and nurses getting sick and burnt out.

On the increase of beds for COVID patients, some doctors have commented that hospitals are unlike hotels; more hospital beds mean more manpower needed, something sorely missing nowadays.

“We too are humans and we beseech that you will value our lives also,” the CMS statement read.

The group is appealing to lawmakers to formulate laws that would protect and support the distressed health care workers and hospitals rather than antagonize their “noble effort” in curbing this pandemic.

Likewise, it is clamoring for real-time accuracy and transparency of data reporting to the public, especially in light of the Department of Health’s statement attributing the recent spike to “testing backlogs.”

CMS also expressed that relaxing the quarantine status does not make the virus disappear and instead makes the general population most vulnerable to infection.

“We gently recommend to our public officials and fellow Cebuanos not downplay the veracity of this contagion. We acknowledge the existence of other infectious diseases but in our lifetime, it is only COVID-19 that has wreaked havoc and brought the entire world to its knees and divested us of a sense of normalcy,” it said.

Reinforcement

Even as Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella earlier declared that the city is the most prepared, the IATF saw the need to send some help badly needed in the hospitals.

The Philippine Air Force, using the C-295, had already airlifted ventilators, PPE units and medical supplies here, including 20 brand-new high-flow nasal cannula ventilators, 240 boxes containing 6,000 PPEs with surgical gowns, surgical masks, KN95 masks, shoe covers and gloves and medicines intended for Cebu City.

The reinforcement came immediately after the latest pronouncement of President Duterte reverting Cebu City enhanced community quarantine on Monday.

Strict Hospital Monitoring

In his Executive Order No. 82, Labella ordered all public and private hospitals within the city to submit a daily census of occupancy documenting the total regular bed capacity; expanded COVID-19 bed capacity; intensive care unit (ICU) bed capacity; and dedicated COVID-19 ICU bed capacity.

Level II quarantine facilities, including the city's Quarantine Center, Bayanihan Cebu Sacred Heart School Field Center and IEC Field Center, and barangay isolation centers (BICs) established throughout the city shall likewise submit a daily census of their actual occupancies.

In a virtual press conference broadcasted through the social media page of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) earlier, data showed that four private hospitals operating in Metro Cebu, namely CebuDoc Group of Hospitals, Chong Hua Hospital, University of Cebu Medical Center and Perpetual Succour Hospital, have a capacity of 2,063 regular beds.

The government-owned Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) has 550 beds.

Based on the data, 394 of 2,613 beds had been allocated for COVID-19 patients.

The same data showed that only 59 of the five hospitals’ 172 total intensive care unit (ICU) bed capacity had been allocated for COVID-19 patients in serious condition.

During the visit of National Task Force COVID-19 chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. last week, hospital operators were asked to expand COVID-19 bed capacity by 30 percent or 200 beds.

Expanded regular COVID-19 beds are now 504 from 394 and ICU beds are now 73 from 59, data showed.

Stay at home

Labella's latest executive order provides that the mandatory stay at home order is still in effect.

Among the individuals exempted are medical practitioners, emergency personnel, all authorized national and local government officials and employees, accredited media personnel, among others.

There is still non-disruption of government work.

Industries or sectors are allowed to operate provided that they comply with the minimum public health standards and safety protocols at all times.

Sectors or industries allowed to operate with full operational capacity include public and private hospitals; health, emergency, and frontline services; manufacturers of medicines, medical supplies, devices and equipment, among others.

Under the ECQ, mass gatherings are prohibited.

All forms of public transportation shall be temporarily suspended except for commissioned shuttle services for employees of permitted offices or establishments as well as point-to-point transport services provided by the government.

Labella's previous orders such as the mandatory wearing of face masks in public places, Carbon Public Market Complex Schedule, number coding scheme for vehicles, and curfew, among others, remain in effect.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police are directed to implement the full extent of the executive order.

Barangay officials and other force multipliers are likewise mandated to implement the full extent of the order. Each barangay shall immediately establish checkpoints in strategic areas within their respective areas of jurisdictions in close coordination with law enforcement agencies.

“Violation of any provision of this Order and other earlier Executive Orders issued in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic shall be subject to penalties pursuant to existing national laws and local ordinances,” read the EO.  JMD (FREEMAN)