ILOILO CITY—The Department of Health (DOH 6) here has warned that the bed capacity of public hospitals catering to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in Western Visayas has reached critical level.
DOH 6 Chief Epidemiologist Dr. Jessie Glen Alonasbe said wards for moderate and severe COVID-19 cases at the Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) in Iloilo City and the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) in Bacolod City have already been filled to 100-percent occupancy, as of Thursday, August 20.
For COVID-19 isolation wards, 71 of the 86 beds were occupied at WVMC, while 14 out of the 22 beds were occupied at CLMMRH. Both hospitals are being managed by the DOH 6.
The Western Visayas Sanitarium, another DOH-run hospital in Santa Barbara town in Iloilo province, has seven out of eight COVID-19 ward beds occupied.
“It is critical because it’s already above 70 percent occupancy rate,” Alonsabe explained to Manila Bulletin in an interview Friday, August 21.
The high occupancy rate this month was a result with the sudden surge of locally transmitted COVID-19 cases.
Aside from government-run hospitals, even private hospitals were already turning away patients. St. Paul’s Hospital in Iloilo City stopped admitting COVID-19 related cases as it also no longer had bed space.
Other public and private hospitals also had to cut full operations when certain departments had to temporarily close every time health workers and staff become positive.