RAPID TEST As COVID-19 cases in Iloilo City rise, the local government makes sure that City Hall employees undergo rapid testing for coronavirus as a first step in containing the spread of the disease. —PHOTO COURTESY OF ILOILO CITY GOVERNMENT FACEBOOK PAGE
ILOILO CITY, Iloilo, Philippines — Hospitals in Iloilo and Bacolod cities have breached their bed capacity for patients with the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), with some temporarily stopping the admission of patients due to the continued surge in cases.
Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) is no longer admitting patients due to the rising number of infected personnel and after reaching its full bed capacity.
Nonadmission would cover all cases and not just related to COVID-19, the hospital said earlier in a statement. It said its emergency room would only respond to “extreme emergency cases until the patient is stabilized and ready for referral to another health institution.”
On Monday, WVMC decided to accept non-COVID-19 cases.
‘Fatigue, exhaustion’
The private St. Paul’s Hospital of Iloilo (SPHI) also suspended admission of COVID-19 cases starting Aug. 19, and its obstetrics and gynecology (OB-GYN) services from Aug. 22 to 31.
“Our facilities for COVID-19 cases have reached full capacity and we can no longer accommodate new COVID cases for the time being,” it said in a statement.
SPHI said the suspension of OB-GYN services in other hospitals had also overwhelmed the capacity of its services, noting that its residents-on-duty “can no longer operate at maximum capacity as practically all of them are suffering from fatigue and exhaustion.”
Iloilo Mission Hospital also announced last week that it would no longer accept COVID-19 cases after reaching full bed capacity.Dr. Jessie Glen Alonsabe, Western Visayas epidemiologist, said COVID-19 wards and isolation wards in the Department of Health (DOH)-retained hospitals were experiencing critical occupancy rates for beds allotted for COVID-19 patients.
Isolation wards cater to mild cases, while the COVID-19 wards are for moderate to severe cases.
Alonsabe said WVMC’s 10 beds for moderate and severe cases had already been filled, while its isolation ward was 82 percent occupied, or 71 of 86 beds.
Don Jose S. Monfort Medical Center Extension Hospital in Barotac Nuevo town, Iloilo province, has posted a 61.9-percent occupancy in its isolation ward, with 13 of its 21 beds occupied.
The COVID-19 wards of Western Visayas Sanitarium in Sta. Barbara town, Iloilo, have reached 87.5 percent occupancy (seven of eight beds) while 13 of 24 beds (54 percent) in its isolation ward were occupied.
All 14 beds in the COVID-19 ward of Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City are fully occupied, while 14 of 22 beds (64 percent) in its isolation ward were occupied.
Adventist Medical Center Bacolod, in a statement on Sunday, said: “Our emergency room isolation unit for emergency and urgent care designated for COVID cases is overflowing with patients waiting to be admitted.”The DOH in Western Visayas had reported 3,361 COVID-19 cases with 53 deaths in the region as of Aug. 22. Of these, 1,794 were active cases.