CAINTA, Rizal- A cash reward awaits the doctor who has the highest number of recovered COVID patients under their care, under Cainta's newly-implemented system of patient monitoring.
Mayor Johnielle Keith Nieto announced on Facebook that he will give his entire salary for the month of August to the Cainta doctor who has the most number of recovered patients in their care.
Under the newly set-up referral system for COVID patients in Cainta, the local government has assigned a doctor to monitor a group of five or more active COVID patients who are either under home quarantine or admitted to the local government health facility.
As of Aug. 19, the municipal government has assigned 33 doctors to monitor their assigned patients every day.
Under the referral system, the doctor will be contacting their patients regularly by mobile phone to check their health condition.
Nieto added that if there are recoveries among the patients, a new patient will replace them on the doctor's list.
The names of the doctors and the patients' COVID case numbers, their ages, and barangays are posted on Mayor Nieto's Facebook page.
He also announced that the local government will distribute pulse oximeters to confirmed COVID patients under home quarantine.
The device measures the pulse and the percentage of oxygen in the blood when clipped onto the patient’s finger. If the oximeter shows a reading below 90, the patient has to contact the doctor assigned to them who will decide whether to send the patient to the hospital.
On Aug. 18, Nieto also announced on his personal Facebook page that he will use a cash donation to purchase Chinese herbal medicine that the local government will use for the management of COVID among the patients suffering from the illness.
Nieto also said the local government has resumed the giving of free pneumococcal vaccine (anti-pneumonia) to the members of the vulnerable sector in the town as part of the program to fight the spread of coronavirus disease.