Tacloban City (December 23) – Dr. Alberto de Leon, chief of the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center in Tacloban City, said that EVRMC will readily take in the dengue patients from Naval.
“In the first place, we cannot turn down any patient who comes to EVRMC,” Dr. De Leon said.
“Secondly, Dr. Nicolas Bautista, chief of the Surveillance Division of the Department of Health in Region 8, has already briefed me regarding the outbreak,” Dr. De Leon added.
It was learned that seven dengue patients from Barangay Sto. Niño in Naval, the capital town of Biliran, have been admitted to the EVRMC as of December 22 in the evening.
Dr. De Leon said that most of the cases being admitted at the EVRMC are the primary cases like OB cases which are supposed to be taken cared of at the District Hospitals.
The Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center in Tacloban City is the biggest government hospital in Eastern Visayas. It has a 250-bed capacity for charity wards.
Today, EVRMC already has Philhealth Wards for the paying patients, Dr. Alberto de Leon said.
With the health sector’s campaign for quality service to the people and fiscal autonomy, the EVRMC management was able to source out P6.6 million for the construction of Philhealth wards, private and semi private rooms for paying patients in order to generate income for the maintenance of hospital.
Dr. de Leon said that the hospital has already made some improvements and repairs have been done, unfortunately, the hospital is at the moment not earning because although it is a tertiary hospital, only 50% of the patients are tertiary cases, the other 50% cases are primary and secondary cases which are eating up the budget of the hospital.
Most of the time, the Hospital is taking care of more than the bed capacity and so more often than not some patients are forced to sleep along the hospital corridors. The hospital cannot turn away any patient who comes for health care.
Today, most of the spill-over in the corridors are OB patients and Ortho patients who are being managed before they go for surgery.
The EVRMC has 105 doctors and 132 nurses but this workforce is not enough to serve the 250-bed capacity hospital which oftentimes would accommodate more than its capacity. (PIA 8)
