ILOILO City – Seven private hospitals here have no more available beds for patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
“I know a couple of COVID-19 patients who died waiting for a hospital room,” said Mayor Jerry Treñas.
The seven hospitals were The Medical City Iloilo, Iloilo Doctor’s Hospital, Saint Paul’s Hospital Iloilo, Iloilo Mission Hospital, Medicus, Qualimed, and Metro Iloilo Hospital.
Only three hospitals have available COVID beds left – Seaman’s Hospital (two), Western Visayas Medical Center (nine) and West Visayas State University Medical Center (three) – but these were not enough for the “waitlisted” 76 positive, probable and suspect COVID-19 patients as of 6 p.m. of May 21.
Of these 76 patients, 31 were patients of WVMC, and 22 were those of WVSUMC. The rest were patients of the seven private hospitals.
Yesterday, the city’s active COVID-19 cases rose to 981 (with 42 new cases recorded), data from the Department of Health (DOH) Region 6 showed.
‘QUICK ACTION’
Treñas said the surge in infections is overwhelming hospitals and though they want to increase their COVID bed capacity, they do not have enough resources; their unpaid claims with state health insurer Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) has ballooned to over P800 million
The state health insurer’s prolonged inaction may “foreseeably result in the collapse” of the local healthcare system, Treñas warned.
The hospitals and their unpaid PhilHealth claims were the following:
* The Medical City Iloilo – P74.444 million
* West Visayas State University Medical Center – P36. 569 million
* Metro Iloilo Hospital and Medical Center – P78.013 million
* QualiMed Hospital – P30.393 million
* Iloilo Doctor’s Hospital – P38.265 million
* St. Paul’s Hospital Iloilo – P100.870 million
* Western Visayas Medical Center – P349.723 million
* Iloilo Mission Hospital – P99.645 million
The Medicus Medical Center also has unpaid claims with PhilHealth while the city government-run Uswag Molecular Laboratory has P53.572 million.
The hospitals and the city government wanted a speedy response from PhilHealth, said Treñas.
In May 17 virtual meeting with hospital directors and representatives, Philhealth president Atty. Dante Guiran promised to act on the unpaid claims. But he did not give a timeline./PN
