ILOILO City – The Department of Health (DOH) is enjoining public and private hospitals here to allot more beds for severe and critical coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients.
Health undersecretary Leopoldo Vega who was here yesterday assured hospital medical directors of DOH’s support, specifically on human resources and equipment.
Among the hospitals he called out were the DOH-retained Western Visayas Medical Center in Mandurriao district here and the Western Visayas Sanitarium in Santa Barbara, Iloilo.
Mayor Jerry Treñas earlier appealed for the national government’s help to improve the city’s healthcare capacity.
“Nagpapasalamat tayo sa presensya ni Undersecretary Vega, (DOH) Assistant Secretary (Romeo) Ong at kay Dr. Ariel Valencia, director of DOH-National Capital Region kasi kailangan namin ng tulong…We need all the support that we can get and we are very thankful to the national government,” Treñas said.
‘PHILHEALTH MUST PAY NOW’
But while DOH’s plan (increase bed capacity) is doable, said Treñas, this could further inflate the still unpaid debt of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to hospitals amounting to over P860 million.
“Ila hambal dapat mag-abri ang hospital sang dugang nga kwarto, yes that is really doable. Ang problema, ang Philhealth kay ti kadaku sang utang,” the mayor said.
“Pa-abrihon mo sila, kundi madugangan pa gid ang utang sang PhilHealth,” Treñas stressed.
The city mayor is hoping that the state health insurer could now settle its debts.
In a related development, Vega clarified that Iloilo City’s quarantine classification could not be downgraded just yet, despite its latest two-week growth rate being negative.
“Iloilo City is currently on moderate risk for COVID-19… but the average daily attack rate is still high,” Vega said.
Iloilo City was also earlier advised by the Department of Interior and Local Government to address its healthcare utilization rate (HCUR) which was at “high risk” status (81.39 percent) as of June 27.
Data from the Department of Health (DOH) in Region 6 showed the utilization of beds and mechanical ventilators (both components of HCUR) at 83.19 percent and 70.37 percent, respectively.
The Regional Task Force Against COVID-19 and Regional Inter-Agency Task Force (RIATF) would also augment the city’s efforts./PN
