Bacolod needs more health workers amid high hospital occupancy

City Mayor Evelio Leonardia said today that hospitals in Bacolod need more healthcare workers as occupancy reaches critical level with the recent spike in coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases.

“We are still awaiting the Department of Health’s (DOH) reply to our request regarding additional health workers. We also asked for machines and equipment such as ventilators,” Leonardia said in a media interview.

He already sent a letter of request to the DOH-Western Visayas (DOH-6) for assistance in hiring more nurses and other medical front-liners to attend to Covid-19 patients.

There is no absolute number on the actual shortage of health workers, Leonardia said, but he noted that for the 275 beds allotted for Covid-19 cases in various hospitals, only 230 personnel are available for duty.

“Hospital occupancy has already reached critical level at 87 percent. That is why we already sounded the alarm bells to the DOH,” he added.

Today, Sept. 21, Bacolod recorded 83 new cases, bringing the total active cases to 1,854, although yesterday Sept. 20, the city had 110 new cases or active cases at 1,836.

Leonardia said that Covid-19 infections in Bacolod had been averaging 100.38 per day in September, from an average of only 41 cases daily in the past two months.

Currently, under the general community quarantine with heightened restrictions (GCQ-HR) status, Bacolod has been placed by the DOH under Alert Level 4 together with the Province of Negros Occidental, Iloilo Province, and Iloilo City.

Leonardia said the city government has yet to receive official communications from the national Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases regarding the development, but pointed out that one of its features, which is the imposition of granular lockdowns where necessary, is already being done here.

“We are already doing that as the need arises. We were closing down areas especially those with confirmed critical cases,” Leonardia said.

The latest data showed that almost 280,000 residents here are already fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

This is equivalent to 30 percent of the population targeted for vaccination, the mayor said.* (Nanette Guadalquiver, PNA)