5 Bacolod hospitals close doors to coronavirus patients

MOBILE ROLLOUT A mobile mass vaccination against COVID-19 opens at the Bacolod City public plaza amid a surge of cases in the city. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

BACOLOD CITY—Five of the seven hospitals in this city have stopped accepting new COVID-19 patients starting last Tuesday, for lack of space and personnel.Among them was the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH), one of the biggest medical facilities in the city.

The four others were Riverside Medical Center, Adventist Medical Center-Bacolod, South Bacolod General Hospital, and Metro Bacolod Hospital and Medical Center.

Dr. Chris Sorongon, deputy for medical data and analysis of the city’s Emergency Operations Center, said they were coordinating with the Department of Health (DOH) in Western Visayas to ask for additional 50 health-care workers in Bacolod.

Aside from health-care workers, Sorongon said hospitals in the city also needed additional equipment and medicines for COVID-19 patients.

The city government recently decided to open two treatment and monitoring facilities to accommodate coronavirus patients.

As of Thursday, Bacolod has 1,602 active cases, out of the 18,202 infections it logged since March last year, according to the DOH. The city recorded 420 deaths.The CLMMRH said its emergency room and all hospital wards had reached maximum capacity and it did not have enough manpower to handle patients.

“For the first time in the past 18 months of addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospital is highly challenged with the current surge of cases,” the CLMMRH advisory read.

No manpower

The CLMMRH said its pediatrics department could accommodate non-COVID-19 cases but was limited to extreme emergencies only.

The Riverside Medical Center said it had the facility and equipment to handle COVID-19 patients but also lacked medical personnel to take care of them.

The Negros Occidental provincial government was seeking permission from the DOH to open up three field hospitals in the cities of Silay and Cadiz and the town of EB Magalona that would accommodate 1,000 beds for COVID-19 patients, said Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz.

On Thursday, Negros Occidental’s active cases rose to 2,298, the Provincial Incident Management Team reported.

The province logged 25,254 cases since last year with 22,254 recoveries and 711 deaths.

Diaz said the proposed field hospitals would augment the COVID-19 designated Valladolid District Hospital that was 94-percent full and the Cadiz District Hospital that was 97-percent occupied.

The provincial government is also hastening the transformation of the Valeriano M. Gatuslao Memorial District Hospital in Himamaylan City into a COVID-19 center that would open up 75 more beds.