BY CARLA P. GOMEZ
The situation at the Teresita L. Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City was under control yesterday after three of its doctors tested positive for COVID-19, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said yesterday.
Two were internal medicine doctors and one was a pediatrician.
The nurses, medical technicians and orderlies of the hospital have already tested negative for the virus, Diaz said.
The hospital is almost safe, they are just waiting for the second swab test results of its doctors, he said.
Admission of new patients at the TLJPH has temporarily been stopped, and the operating room is only being used for emergency cases, he said.
Emergency room services have also been transferred to a tent outside the hospital, while the ER is being decontaminated, he added.
As soon as it is determined that there is no longer any COVID-19 threat to the hospital, it will resume normal operations, Diaz said.
The hospital also lacks pediatricians with only two working and the rest are quarantined until their test results are released, he added.
They may ask pediatricians from the Cadiz District Hospital to augment the TLJPH pediatricians in the meantime, he said.
One staff member of the hospital in charge of carrying oxygen tanks who came in contact with one of the COVID-positive doctors had fever and LBM and was endorsed to the hospital and tested, Diaz said.
Diaz said the COVID-19 problem is the result of doctors’ moonlighting in other hospitals in defiance of Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson’s memorandum not do so.
The memorandum was issued by the governor to protect government hospitals from COVID-19 infection during the pandemic, he said.
Diaz also noted that some private hospitals also have staff hit by COVID-19.
“If our health workers are infected our health care system will bog down,” Diaz said.
Our hospitals must be able to continue to serve COVID and non COVID patients, he added.
All precautionary measures are being taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19, he said.
He appealed for compliance with the governor’s memorandum.*
