TWO government hospitals in Mandaue City have reported that their bed allocation for Covid-19 patients have exceeded capacity.
These are Eversley Childs Sanitarium and General Hospital and Mandaue City Hospital.
Eversley reported that it had 105 Covid-19 patients as of Aug. 16, 2021, but it had only 93 beds for Covid-19 patients, bringing the utilization rate to 113 percent.
For its part, Mandaue City Hospital reported that the hospital’s 25 beds had been fully occupied by Covid-19 patients as of Aug. 16.
Eversley chief Dr. Pythagoras Zerna said they will be rolling out their teleconsultations for outpatients after suspending their face-to-face consultations because of the increase in admitted patients.
He said they decided to temporarily make this setup to prevent the outpatients from being exposed to communicable diseases, especially since the hospital has been accommodating Covid-19 patients.
As of Aug. 16, Zerna said, three Covid-19 patients were in critical condition, nine were severe cases, and 65 were moderate symptomatic patients. The rest were mild symptomatic patients who were already referred to the temporary treatment and monitoring facilities.
He said most of the severe cases and moderate cases were unvaccinated. Most vaccinated patients exhibited mild symptoms, while some vaccinated patients manifested moderate symptoms. Those with moderate symptoms who already recovered from Covid-19 recovered fast from the illness.
Also, with the teleconsultation setup, Zerna said they will reassign the medical personnel in the outpatient department to take care of the Covid-19 patients.
Zerna admitted that they are in need of more medical personnel who can take over if someone gets sick.
He said he already requested the Department of Health central office to give additional funds to the hospital so it can hire new personnel.
Eversley has total authorized beds of 100. All in all, it reached 146 patients on Aug. 16, reaching 146 percent in its utilization rate.
Even though they have exceeded their allocated beds, Zerna said they still manage to give the expected services from them and they also installed extension beds.
On the other hand, Merryl Marie Maunes, chief nurse of Mandaue City Hospital, said their hospital has a capacity of 25 beds, and these were all occupied by Covid-19 patients.
The operation of their outpatient department and teleconsultations are done in the Mandaue City Health Office and barangay health centers.
Aside from Covid-19 patients, Maunes said they cater only to medico-legal cases. (KFD)