Ilocos Norte hospital calls for help as COVID-19 surge threatens to overwhelm it

BATAC CITY, Ilocos Norte—The biggest public hospital in Ilocos Norte province is on the brink of being overwhelmed, prompting it to ask the public for help in converting some of its rooms for more patients getting infected with SARS Cov2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, health authorities said.

On Thursday (April 8), the Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center (MMMH&MC) said that it had already been treating 30 COVID-19 patients, which had exceeded the 27-bed capacity that the Department of Health (DOH) had assigned to the hospital.

MMMH&MC is one of the province’s three COVID-19 referral hospitals and the primary treatment center for patients with the viral disease.

“We appeal to the public to donate essential items for our COVID-19 ward expansion to accommodate the increasing number of COVID-19 cases admitted in our facility,” said the hospital in a statement.

Dr. Maria Lourdes Otayza, MMMH&MC chief, told the Inquirer that the hospital had not been spared from the surge of infections.

The hospital is set to temporarily convert at least 10 rooms in a newly constructed building into COVID-19 wards, said Otayza.

Among the items asked by the hospital to be donated are wall and stand fans, pillows, bed sheets, thin blankets, fabrics to be turned as gowns for admitted patients, and wireless cameras.

On March 27, the hospital began to appeal among recovered COVID-19 patients to donate blood for convalescent plasma transfusion, which could help treat severely ill COVID-19 patients in the province.

“We hope that the community we serve will once again be generous and help us with the donations,” said Otayza.

The province had seen a five-fold increase in COVID-19 cases as it dealt with several outbreaks in at least three towns.

TSB