THE Department of Health (DOH) 7 said 35 nurses, 11 doctors and eight medical technologists from Cebu will be sent on Wednesday, April 7, 2021, to the NCR Plus—the term for the National Capital Region and neighboring provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal that are under enhanced community quarantine.
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of DOH 7, said in a media briefing that the medical workers are from various hospitals and medical centers in Cebu, and some of them were hired by the DOH 7.
The 54 medical workers are the first batch of the 100 to 200 healthcare professionals targeted for deployment in the NCR Plus.
Request
Sen. Christopher Lawrence Go, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, had requested the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (Opav) to send medical workers from the Visayas to assist the hospitals and medical centers in the NCR Plus.
OPAV Secretary Michael Lloyd Dino responded to the legislator’s request and coordinated with the Visayas health regional directors to generate volunteer medical workers to be sent to the NCR Plus.
Aside from Cebu, Loreche said they also requested medical workers from Bohol, Siquijor and Negros Oriental.
Loreche said the DOH 7 will provide the salaries of the healthcare workers, whose contracts stipulate that they have to render their services for one month.
The medical workers’ performance will be evaluated every two weeks.
Loreche’s confidence
Despite some of Cebu’s medical workers’ deployment, Loreche said she is confident Cebu will not be in need of many medical workers or in needing more beds because the critical healthcare utilization rate is at 31.7 percent, far from the danger zone.
“We are in the safe zone of our bed allocation and manpower,” she said.
If Cebu would need more medical workforce, Loreche said the medical workers sent to the NCR Plus can be recalled right away.
Blood donation
Last Friday, April 2, Loreche said the DOH 7 sent 355 units of blood products to NCR Plus.
On Thursday, April 8, the DOH 7 will send a total of 200 blood products to NCR Plus.
For packed red cells, 130 units will be sent, in which 100 units are O positive, 20 units are B positive and 10 units are AB positive.
For the fresh frozen plasma, Loreche said DOH 7 will send out 40 units, which comprises 10 units for blood type A, B, AB and O.
For convalescent plasma, Loreche said they will send 20 units of O positive and 10 units of B positive. (KFD)