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BY MERIANNE GRACE EREÑETA
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ILOILO – The 25-bed district hospital in Calinog town is packed with patients, accommodating more than six times its capacity.
Staffers at the Dr. Ricardo Provido Sr. Memorial District Hospital are left with no choice but to place the patients — some of whom are suffering from pneumonia and dengue — at the hallway and covered footwalk.
“We don’t refuse patients,” the chief of hospital, Dr. Edgard Castaños, told Panay News. “According to Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr., this is a hospital for the poor…it was built to serve poorest of the poor.”
The hospital has 81 patients with pneumonia, 27 have dengue, and 62 have urinary tract infection, hypertension or diarrhea, among others.
Castaños said families who want their sick members admitted are warned the hospital has no available room and the patients will be placed at either the hallway or the covered footwalk at the back.
“We try to explain to them…that all we can provide them are folding beds,” he said.
Castaños said they cannot turn down patients, especially those from the hinterlands.
“[Our] hospital is very accessible to Tapaz (Capiz), parts of Passi (component city), Dueñas, Lambunao, and even Bingawan,” he said. “We receive patients from as far as Dumalag and Dumarao (both in Capiz).”
‘IT’S NEAR’
Some patients said they would rather be placed at the hallway than head to “farther” hospitals in Iloilo City.
“Diya lang tana tamon kay malapit man tana diya. Malayo pa to ya iban,” Leah Morales, 38, of Barangay Alabidhan, Bingawan told Panay News.
Her one-year-old daughter, admitted on Sept. 17 due to diarrhea, rested in a folding bed at the hallway, near the nurses’ station.
The 59-year-old Cresencia Casidsid, who has urinary tract infection and admitted on Sept. 16, does not mind spending the night at the footwalk.
“Okay lang man kon diri ako kay may mga doctor man kag malapit ang hospital nga ni sa amon, kag wala abi kwarta,” said Casidsid, a resident of Barangay Cabanajan, Calinog.
At night, a plastic draping is pulled down to cover the sides of the footwalk.
Their situation notwithstanding, Elma Carmelo, 39, of Calinog said they find the doctors and medical staff very accommodating.
Her 72-year-old father was admitted last week; he had difficulty breathing.
Asked why they did not head to a better hospital in Iloilo City, she said, “Malayo man ang (ciudad). Kag maano kami didto? Diri na lang kami.”
UNDERMANNED
Another urinary tract infection patient, Rutzel Libuna, 23, of Barangay Marandig, Calinog, was a curious case — she asked the staff to place her along the hallway.
“Mabugnaw diri,” she told Panay News. “Kon sa kwarto, mainit.”
The Dr. Ricardo Provido Sr. Memorial District Hospital has four regular physicians, six contractual physicians, three medical specialists, six regular nurses, and 34 contractual nurses.
With the current number of patients – 170 – the hospital is clearly undermanned, said Castaños.
Right now, the staff gets by with the help of volunteer nurses, he said.
A new hospital building, donated by the Korea International Cooperation Agency, will house the pediatric and obstetrics-gynecology wards, said Castaños. It will open next month yet./PN
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