Richard Gomez says 4 Ormoc hospitals to turn away suspected COVID-19 patients, accept only those critical

CEBU CITY—At least four hospitals in Ormoc City would turn away patients for COVID-19 monitoring unless they were in critical condition, Mayor Richard Gomez said on Monday (March 16).

Gomez said this step was being taken to protect medical staffers at a government and three private hospitals in the city.

Patients in critical condition would be exempted from the policy, said the mayor, a former actor.

Gomez said city officials preferred those with only suspected COVID-19 infections to recuperate at home instead of risking the health of people in the hospitals.

“We are protecting our hospitals and the city from further contamination,” Gomez said in a text message to Inquirer.

He said even the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center in Tacloban City, the main hospital for COVID-19 referrals in the region, “is not accepting suspected patients anymore.”

He said city officials’ recommendation to people with suspected infections “are to stay at home and isolate themselves and not to come in close contact with other people.”

“This is also the reason we do not allow people not living in Ormoc entry into the city,” he said.

Elsie Jaca, of the Ormoc City Health Department, in a separate interview, said hospitals in the city have limited equipment and isolation rooms.

“Our hospitals can only accept those patients who are in critical condition. Otherwise, they are advised to stay at home,” she said over the phone.

“Those with mild coughs and colds who do not need ventilators or whatever can manage to stay at home. We can call and give them medicines,” she added.

Ormoc currently has three persons who showed symptoms and 33 who are being monitored but without symptoms. All are isolated at home.

The Department of Health (DOH) earlier assured the public that all hospitals were obligated to accept patients with symptoms of COVID-19.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire had said all hospitals have a commitment and that they could face sanctions if they violate their obligation to patients.

She issued the statement amid reports that a hospital in Pasig City, Metro Manila started refusing suspected COVID-19 patients.

Vergeire said the patients were tested and because their symptoms were mild, they were told to go home.

But once the results of the tests were received, they were asked to return to the hospital.

Hospitals, she said, “don’t have a right to refuse.” “All hospitals must help the government now,” she added.

Edited by TSB