MANILA, Philippines — As the novel coronavirus pandemic rages on across the country, medical directors and leaders from Visayas and Mindanao are pushing for the establishment of more COVID-19 facilities in their respective areas.
In a virtual panel discussion hosted by Institute for Solidarity in Asia, medical leaders from Zamboanga City, Davao City, Tagum City, Cebu City and Santa Barabara, Iloilo, shared the steps taken by their hospitals to boost their infectious disease infrastructure.
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The webinar was moderated by Dr. Gerardo Manzo, Philippine Heart Center Deputy Executive Director for Medical Services.
Ultimately, the doctors agreed that these improvements in infrastructure were necessary to "crisis-proof" hospitals in case of a second wave of infections or a new pandemic altogether.
"No one can say that we are prepared or what we are doing is enough so that's why we're just thinking again, moving forward all the time, [on] how to address this. Because we have to think about resiliency and we have to think about giving the services not just to COVID but as well as the non-covid [patients]," Zamboanga City Medical Center's Incident Commander, Dr. Giovanni Gimena, explained.
Identifying a center for infectious diseases in Visayas
Dr. Judy Ann Dumayas, Western Visayas Sanitarium Medical Center Chief I, reported that the Iloilo facility has successfully transferred its coronavirus and its non-coronavirus patients into separate buildings.
"We already transferred out COVID-positive patients to our newly renovated single bed COVID-dedicated ward [and] we transferred our non-COVID infectious patients out of the hospital building to the newly improved..non-COVID infectious ward," Dumayas reported.
"We submitted our readiness for the construction of the Bayanihan Heal as One offsite dormitory for medical personnel, another building will be given for the construction of quarantine or isolation facility for covid suspects and the site visit was already done by the [Department of Public Works and Highways] last week," she added.
Even before the onset of the pandemic, the sanitarium was already slated to boost its capacity to treat infectious diseases.
Dr. Gerardo Aquino, Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center Chief II, said that an infectious center for Visayas should be indentified to better confront a second wave or a new pandemic in the future.
He added that the Western Visayas Sanitarium "is a very good location", and if outfitted with the necessary improvements, would make a good infectious disease center in the future.
Aquino said that Vicente Memorial in Cebu City was previously awarded with a four-story infectious ward but construction stopped due to the pandemic.
He further explained that identifying an infectious diseases center would allow Level 3 or trauma hospitals such as Vicente Sotto Memorial and referral facilities to "concentrate on really specialized cases."
Mindanao hospitals eye more COVID-19 labs
Zamboanga City Medical Center's incident commander, Dr. Giovanni Gimena, said that even as the hospital already has an outpatient COVID-19 facility, it has separate plans to build its own center for the virus.
"We are also lobbying for additional molecular laboratory that will be again placed in our institution. We have had talks with the local government unit and some of the people from the national government that maybe we could put a COVID facility that is outside...the economic center of Zamboanga City," Gimena said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Bryan Dalid, Davao Regional Medical Center Chief II, said the Tagum City hospital is still working on moving its isolation facility into a separate building and to establish its own COVID-19 laboratory in the future.
Southern Philippines Medical Center OIC Chief, Dr. Ricardo Audan, reported that two of the Davao City hospital's projects to expand its facilities have already been approved and awarded.
"This is the expansion of a subnational laboratory, its about P70 million, probably next month it will start constructing, and we have also P25 million approved budget for the non-COVID [intensive care unit]," Dalid explained.
He added that hiring additional nurses and doctors were critical to preparing for the possibility of a second wave.
As it stands, the country has been under community quarantine for 134 days — the longest quarantine period in the world.
Cases are still rising, with the Health department logging over 2,000 cases new cases four days in a row from last Thursday to last Sunday.
On Wednesday, the DOH placed the national caseload at 85,486 and fatalities at 1,962.
— Bella Perez-Rubio