BY MARCHEL P. ESPINA
Only 47 beds for coronavirus confirmed patients are available in Bacolod, data from the city public information office showed yesterday.
The seven hospitals in the city have a total of 201 functional Covid-19 beds with 154 admitted patients and 589 committed healthcare workers, the data showed.
City Administrator Em Ang, also the executive director of the Emergency Operations Center, said the 82 percent capacity utilization rate is high, considering the more than 100 cases reported every day.
She said there are still other Covid-19 beds available in the city, but due to a shortage of hospital manpower, they could not be utilized.
The city government and the Department of Health have capacitated these hospitals by augmenting them with additional nurses.
She added that with additional manpower, more Covid-19 beds will be functional.
Moreover, she said that another immediate concern right now is the shortage of emergency rooms in hospitals, adding that there are even waiting lists.
Right now, ambulances would not pick up emergency case patients if there are no confirmed slots in the hospitals, she said.
If there are no reservations, ambulances will have to wait until there are available rooms, Ang added.
She also said that seven of the city’s ambulances serve Covid patients.
Meanwhile, the 32-bed isolation facility in Barangay Alijis, that will be turned to the city by end of September, will also boost the healthcare facility of the locality, Ang said. She said part of the facility will be used as a midway referral center for emergency cases, with doctors and medical equipment.
This is to augment the shortage of emergency rooms in the hospitals, she added.
As of September 22, the city has 539 available beds in quarantine facilities in schools, which have a capacity of 928 and with 389 patients.*
