LIMITED availability of personal protective equipment (PPEs) for frontline healthcare workers remains a big challenge at the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC).
Dr. Leopoldo Vega, SPMC chief, said although they currently have enough supplies of PPE -- which are from the national government, their suppliers, and donations by groups and individuals -- the challenge for them is how they can sustain it considering there is a PPE shortage in the market.
Vega said with the increasing number of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) positive patients admitted at their hospital, there is also a growing demand for the use of PPE like isolation gowns, shoe covers, head covers, goggles, face shields, coveralls, aprons, and surgical masks, among others.
“This is the only way to protect the health workers from getting contaminated and also that he will be confident to serve the patient,” Vega said.
For a single patient with moderate symptoms, Vega said they would need an average of 10 to 15 PPE per day. For a patient in critical condition, which requires frequent monitoring, their healthcare workers use an average of 25 PPE per day. Whenever, a nurse, medical technologist, and doctors had an exposure to a Covid-19 patient, they need to change to avoid contamination.
“Ganon kabilis ang consumption ng PPE. This is also very important because these protect the health workers from getting contaminated. The problem always that comes in our mind is how to sustain this because kung maghihingi lang tayo ng maghihingi, sometimes it doesn’t count. We are really going into mode of procuring it,” Vega said.
He added, “For mild cases, five PPEs per day or even less but when you deal with a patient with moderate, severe, and critical symptoms, we really need to go to the maximum in terms of counting.”
Vega expressed his gratitude to the public for their donations which greatly helped their hospital employees. They also welcome more donations of PPEs while waiting for their procurement.
Meanwhile, some SPMC employees, through social media, questioned the management on why they did not distribute the PPEs yet. Vega clarified that they already distributed some of the PPE but with the limited resources, they had to prioritized those who are handling PUIs and Covid-19 positive patients.
“We do not expect that we will give PPE to all. We cannot do that because we are trying to make sure that the PPE are appropriately given to the right person,” Vega said.
Their priorities are those people working in the emergency room, working at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), people working in the payward where the Covid-19 positive patients are, people working in the isolation, and people working with the medical technologists.
“There has to be prioritization because we don’t have that much kind of resources around. We have to make sure that in the frontlines, all of the people there will be given the necessary resources,” Vega said.