BAGUIO General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC) is bracing for a possible surge of infections in the region.

Dr. Thea Cajulao, Infectious Disease Specialist of BGHMC, said with the increase in the number of cases in Baguio City, they are expecting the surge anytime.

“We did not have any cases in the previous days but then, cases could be incubating. It is possible that they may not have the symptoms now and it takes around 14 days, so we will see in the coming days if we will have that surge. I don’t think that there are no more cases and, instead, I think there are cases that will arrive,” Cajulao said.

BGHMC is a sub-national hospital for Covid-19 with laboratory testing capabilities in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).

“We have been preparing the hospital as early as January and now that we only have a few cases, it does not mean that the preparations of the hospital have stopped. BGHMC continues to update its self most especially on the infection control policies. As the information or the studies come, we adjust or we improve on the existing policies, and the more we know about the virus,” Cajulao added.

BGHMC conducted a review for doctors donning and docking procedures, aside from a discussion on the flow of patients undergoing surgery in the hospital.

During the enhanced and general community quarantine period, elective operations were put on hold but with the resumption of services including surgeries. The hospital is now in the process of polishing algorithms and the flow of patients.

Meanwhile, BGHMC is in the process of adjusting operations to service non-Covid patients.

Dr. Leahmor Fangonilo, BGHMC Public Health Unit head, explained its outpatient department (OPD) adopted a tele-appointment system for patients.

“Under this system, we can do face-to-face but should have a prior appointment through our tele-appointment platform,” Fangonilo said.

Fangonilo added BGHMC is awaiting for additional consumables for automated extractors to increase Covid-19 testing.

“We are awaiting the consumables of the automated extractors and once it arrives, we can process around 1,500 laboratory swab specimens. We are currently testing a maximum of 1,000 specimens under the manual mode,” Fangonilo added.

Although it now receives a minimal number of swab specimens from other regions, Fangonilo said the majority of the tests being done at BGHMC comes from the city, Benguet Province, and other CAR provinces.