Pampanga hospital denies reuse of PPEs

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – A Pampanga hospital treating coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients has pushed back against critics who accused the facility of reusing disposable personal protective equipment (PPE) suits.

“The PPE is one of the most essential items that are always readily available” at the Jose B. Lingad Memorial General Hospital (JBLMGH), said Dr. Monserrat Chichioco, its medical director, after learning about reports claiming that health workers have been made to recycle PPE gear.

“We have more than enough supplies of PPE here. The infection prevention control team and our surveillance officers are closely monitoring [our inventory]. All the more that we do not want our healthcare workers to be unprotected,” she said.

JBLMGH uses several types of PPE, Chichioco said.

“We use the appropriate [gear] depending on the usage indication and place of assignment that is prescribed by [World Health Organization] guidelines which are being followed by our hospital. Some PPE are reusable or washable,” Chichioco added.

Thirty percent (or about 195) of the hospital’s 645 rooms have been assigned to patients afflicted with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), and medical employees working in COVID-19 wards “use the best kind of PPE,” she said. They use full-face masks which are equipped with type P100 particulate filtering facepiece respirators, said Chichioco.

She confirmed that 14 patients from hospitals in the National Capital Region have been transferred to JBLMGH since Aug. 4 as “part of the One Hospital Command strategy of the Department of Health.” DOH runs JBLMGH.

JBLMGH also hosts a molecular laboratory that determines who has contracted the disease in Central Luzon.

/MUF