ABOUT 22 additional doctors and nurses from the Department of Health (DOH)-Western Visayas have arrived in Bacolod City to reinforce the health personnel of hospitals in the city.
Congressman Greg Gasataya said that about 12 military doctors and nurses arrived in Bacolod City on Friday, August 28, 2020, and another 10 doctors and nurses from DOH-Western Visayas also arrived on Thursday.
He said the deployment of additional doctors and nurses in Bacolod City was confirmed by DOH-Western Visayas Director Marlyn Convocar.
Gasataya added the 10 doctors and nurses will be deployed to Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) and the rest will be assigned at various private hospitals in the city.
He noted the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital will also hire an additional of 70 nurses in the city.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia earlier appealed to President Rodrigo Duterte to send an augmentation team of doctors, nurses and medical technologists from the Department of Health (DOH) to Bacolod as an emergency stop-gap measure before the city's health care system bogs down due to coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
Leonardia made an emergency and urgent appeal to Duterte to send to Bacolod, through the DOH, an augmentation team of 150 nurses, 20 doctors and 30 medical technologists.
Convocar, in a statement, said that a team of medical personnel composed of two doctors, four nurses and six medics from Cebu are set to arrive in Bacolod to augment the region's health workforce in response to Covid-19.
She said they will be deployed in private hospitals in Bacolod City that have a high number of admitted Covid-19 patients and with a high critical care utilization rate.
According to the DOH-Western Visayas Center for Health Development, these private hospitals have expressed willingness to increase their Covid-19 bed allocation but lacked the necessary health workers to complement the expansion.
Another batch of health workers composed of around 10 nurses will also be deployed in health facilities in Iloilo and Bacolod. They are set to arrive on September 1, 2020. These health personnel responded to the active recruitment made by DOH-Central Visayas for emergency hiring of medical personnel for Covid response.
The deployed medical personnel will be provided with pre-deployment orientation and capacity building, complete set of personnel protective equipment (PPE), full board and lodging in their areas of assignment, full payment of traveling expenses from point of origin to point of destination and vice versa, diligent monitoring of health status, reasonable 14-day working schedule and deployment and observance of the mandatory 14-day quarantine period post-deployment with pay.
DOH-Western Visayas Center for Health Development expressed its gratitude to these modern-day heroes who heeded the call of the government for selfless service and compassion amid the war on Covid-19.