ILOILO City – Three hospitals here have temporarily stopped accepting cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Rooms or beds allotted for these cases have reached full capacity, according to St. Paul’s Hospital Iloilo in the City Proper, Iloilo Mission Hospital in La Paz district and Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) in Mandurriao district.
“We kindly request those who present symptoms of the disease or who need treatment therefore to please proceed to other medical facilities for their case management,” read part of an advisory from St. Paul’s Hospital Iloilo.
The hospital, however, will continue accepting non-COVID cases.
Saint Paul’s Hospital Iloilo is owned and managed by the Sisters of Saint Paul of Chartres. It is a tertiary level training general hospital with a capacity of 265 beds.
Iloilo Mission Hospital issued an advisory similar to St. Paul’s Hospital Iloilo, and stressed that as soon as it has available beds or rooms for COVID cases it would resume accepting them.
Iloilo Mission Hospital is a private tertiary, academic and teaching hospital with a bed capacity of between 230 to 500.
On the other hand, WVMC, a Department of Health-retained hospital, temporarily stopped accepting both COVID and non-COVID cases “until further notice.”
Aside from the non-availability of beds or rooms, it also cited the increasing number of its healthcare workers infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
According to the hospital’s management, the facility needed a “timeout” to disinfect the medical facility.
Current patients will be properly managed until all are discharged, and vacated wards would be totally decontaminated, it stressed.
Its emergency room will only respond to “extreme emergency cases” until the patient is stabilized and ready for referral to another healthcare institution.
Following the advisories of the three hospitals, the Iloilo provincial government’s Hospital Management Office alerted all district hospitals, the Western Visayas Sanitarium in Santa Barbara town and the Don Jose S. Monfort Medical Center Extension Hospital in Barotac Nuevo town.
“We hope for your understanding. WVMC is making all efforts to stop the increase of confirmed (COVID-19) cases among hospital personnel and prevent the spread of the (disease) in the community. In this health emergency may the public continue to cooperate in the observance of the minimum health standards,” it stressed.
The Department of Health – Region 6 announced last week the occupancy rates in the facilities for COVID-19 cases of four Western Visayas hospitals under its watch reached critical levels.
The COVID wards of WVMC in Iloilo City and Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) in Bacolod City reached “100 percent occupancy” as of Aug. 20.
According to Dr. Glen Alonsabe, epidemiologist, WVMC allotted 10 beds for COVID cases while CLMRH, 14 beds.
Regarding COVID isolation wards, WVMC posted 82 percent occupancy rate (71 of its 86 beds occupied). At CLMMRH, 14 of its 22 beds were occupied (63.64 percent occupancy rate).
Alonsabe said COVID wards cater to moderate-to-critical and severe cases while isolation wards are for mild cases.
The Don Jose Monfort Medical Center Extension Hospital in Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo has no COVID ward but its isolation ward (with 21 beds) now has a 69.1 percent occupancy rate (13 beds occupied).
On the other hand, the Western Visayas Sanitarium in Santa Barbara, Iloilo has a 78.5 percent occupancy rate in its COVID ward (seven out of eight beds were occupied).
The Sanitarium also allotted 22 beds for its isolation ward; 14 are currently occupied (54.17 percent)./PN