SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union (PNA) – Help is on the way for the beleaguered National Capital Region when it comes to its surging COVID-19 cases.
This as the Department of Health Center for Health and Development (DOH-CHD) in the Ilocos Region is set to dispatch volunteer doctors and nurses from DOH-retained hospitals to assist fellow medical workers in the NCR plus bubble as soon as possible.
Recently, the DOH called for ‘reinforcements’ to augment its frontliners facing overwhelming numbers of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in Metro Manila and neighboring provinces of Laguna, Bulacan, Cavite, and Batangas.
As of this posting, there were 28 enlisted volunteers. Of this number, 15 are from the Region 1 Medical Center (R1MC), four from Treatment and Rehabilitation Center (TRC) Dagupan, one from TRC LA Union, and eight from Ilocos Training and Regional Medical Center in La Union (ITRMC).
“Similar instance already happened last year. We sent willing doctors and nurses to Metro Manila last year,” said DOH-CHD-1 information officer Dr. Rheuel Bobis.
Once deployed, the volunteers will be sent to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) referral centers such as the Lung Center of the Philippines, Philippine General Hospital, San Lazaro Hospital, and others, Bobis added.
The DOH will shoulder volunteers’ travel and living costs including necessary test costs.