DOH: LGUs to open triage system for COVID-19 patients

FILE PHOTO: Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire. INQUIRER file photo / EDWIN BACASMAS

MANILA, Philippines — Local government units (LGUs) in Metro Manila will start implementing this week a triage system for COVID-19 patients, the Department of Health (DOH) said Monday.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that the triage system will be initiated first in Metro Manila and that the DOH will be holding meetings with officials in Central Luzon and Calabarzon for the setting up of the same system in their LGUs.

The system, she said, will eventually be adopted nationwide.

Under this strategy, local health workers will have to assess whether those exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms need to be taken to a hospital or a quarantine facility.

“This is a layer we are trying to include in the structure. Puputulin natin ang structure na from the home or the LGU, [people go] straight to the hospital [We will cut the structure of having people going straight from home or LGU to the hospital],” she said.

“This will make our processes more organized,” the health official added.

According to Vergeire, this initiative aims to prevent further congestion in hospitals especially with the surge of new COVID-19 cases.

She noted that most of those admitted in hospitals are mild and asymptomatic.

“Tayo ay nakakuha na ng census sa mga [We have secured a census from] hospital, how many are asymptomatic and mild who are currently admitted in our hospitals, and we will start to extract them from the hospitals and bring them sa mga naitala natin na [to the available] beds from local governments,” she said.

Vergeire also said that the triage system will be linked to the One Hospital Command and to ambulances that will be used if local health workers determine that the patients need to be brought to hospitals.

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