Healthcare workers should also be protected from Covid-19 infection, that is why patients who need to be admitted to the City Health Office Lying-in Clinic must first undergo RT-PCR testing and yield negative results before admission.
“This precautionary measure is imperative as Covid-19 is still here,” City Administrator Em Ang, executive director of the Emergency Operations Center, said.
Close and “skin-to-skin” contact with patients during childbirth is inevitable for healthcare workers at the Lying-in Clinic. “Thus, it is necessary to know whether you have tested positive or negative for Covid-19, so that clinic staff members can take precautionary measures,” Ang added.
Pre-admission testing will not only protect healthcare workers, but also the mother and her newborn child, she said.
The Bacolod Respiratory Outpatient Center, located in front of the public plaza, offers free Covid-19 RT-PCR tests for pregnant women. The BRO Center is open Mondays to Sundays for swabbing services, a press release from the city said.
“It should be SOP, or standard operating procedure, for patients to undergo Covid-19 RT-PCR tests before admission and delivery at the Lying-in Clinic,” she said.
OIC-City Health Officer, Dr. Edwin Miraflor Jr., said a memorandum was issued last year requiring those who give birth at the Lying-in Clinic to comply with the testing requisite before admission.
Despite the memorandum, many patients were still not compliant. The EOC said more than half of the patients admitted at the Lying-in Clinic did not undergo RT-PCR testing.
“Let us not put the health of our healthcare workers at risk. We need to help one another against this pandemic. Let’s help protect the healthcare system, so we can continue to serve and protect the health of each Bacolodnon,” Miraflor said. “When one healthcare worker gets infected with Covid-19, the Lying-in Clinic may temporarily close. It could cease operations. Since we badly need unhampered health services, we have to follow the protocols,” he added.*
