Why are hospitals in Cebu filled to capacity?

The situation in the Philippines today regarding people affected by COVID-19 is that we have 24,787 cases of infected people, 5,545 recoveries and 1,052 fatalities since the middle of March. According to data from the Department of Health (DOH), Cebu City is now the ‘epicenter’ of COVID-19 in the country – what with the consistent rise of cases in the first 10 days of June. Let me point out that we are not having a race as to who would be on top for the Philippines.

Mind you, I also read a report that Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella was confident the city will not revert to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) or modified ECQ despite the increasing number of COVID-19 cases after the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) chief implementer, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., was reportedly impressed with the city’s quarantine facility at the North Reclamation Area (NRA). Remember, today is June 16 and supposedly we are going to move forward, stay were we are today or move backward.

Galvez inspected the CCQC and other COVID-19 facilities in the city when he lauded the city government for having Cebu City Quarantine Center equipped with negative pressure and other equipment, which even Manila does not have. With Galvez’ positive impression about the city’s response, Mayor Labella is confident that the city will remain under GCQ after June 15. So we would know today where Cebu City has been placed by the IATF. I hope they use their brains.

Meanwhile, because of this report people in social media have been posting that all hospitals in Metro Cebu are filled to capacity. This information was seen as a result of calling Cebu the epicenter of COVID-19. But this is not really the whole truth with what is happening to the hospitals in Metro Cebu.

Only last Dec. 18, this is what I wrote in my column in The Freeman just six days before Christmas, before we had a virus hitting us: “The big news these days is that Cebu is having serious trouble in our hospitals due to the severe shortage of nurses. We read in the news that Joseph Stephen Descallar, president of the Philippine Nurses Association Cebu Chapter, said that private facilities should prioritize increasing the salaries and benefits of their nurses since compensation issues are among the top reasons why nurses opt not to work in hospitals, thus prompting the present “nursing shortage.” He added that the lack of nurses is a national issue and not unique to Cebu. “Not only the Philippines is in need of nurses but other countries also. That’s why our nurses are going abroad, including our seasoned and highly skilled nurses.”

One reality in this country is that Filipino nurses abroad are receiving about P80,000 per month or more as compared here where they get only between P10,000 to P12,000 per month. This is really a sad reality we learned a few weeks ago. Private hospitals in Cebu are troubled with the shortage of nurses, causing them to shut down rooms or even entire floors. Indeed, gone are the days when we had an abundant supply of nurses in the Philippines as only a few can be accepted abroad.” This was the column that I wrote a few months ago.

But in truth what aggravated the situation in our hospitals in Metro Cebu is the presence of an IT company that accepts Filipino nurses, paying them almost the same wages they pay nurses in the US. But these nurses are based here in the Philippines, which is a huge advantage for these nurses. This severe shortage has aggravated the problems of lack of nurse  frontliners for COVID-19. This is why many hospitals have shut down a few floors, as they no longer have nurses to man those floors. This is the reason why hospitals in Metro Cebu are considered in full capacity, but they do have rooms, but no nurses to handle those rooms.

So the situation today is that there are patients (COVID or non-COVID) who have no choice but to wait painful long hours in emergency rooms (ER) or in hospital hallways because they cannot be attended to by nurses as there are many patients. For sure many foreign nations also have shortage of nurses and have now accepted Filipino nurses even in the USA.

Meanwhile, Dr. Tony Leachon, special adviser to Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. confirmed that hospitals in Metro Cebu are getting overwhelmed but not due to the increased number of cases in Metro Cebu. The supposed increase was the result of the rapid testing held a couple of weeks ago. So don’t be scared!

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