SEVERE and critical Covid-19 patients who can no longer be accommodated at the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) might be transferred to other Covid-19 referral hospitals outside Davao City.
City Health Office (CHO) Acting Head Dr. Ashley Lopez said SPMC's critical care utilization rate (CCUR) is currently under critical level.
As of June 1, SPMC has already expanded its intensive care units from 77 to 87. However, it has still reached its full occupancy, while its ward bed utilization rate is now at 89.42 percent, with 279 out of its 312 beds occupied.
Lopez said the coverage of the One Hospital Command Center was decided to be expanded to the entire region in case there will be an “overspill” of patients.
"The whole Davao Region was opened up in case there is going to be an overspill. Buot pasabot niini, kung wala nay kabutangan ang SPMC, pwede ta mag-sort out sa ubang probinsya (That means, if SPMC can no longer accommodate patients, we can refer them to neighboring provinces)," Lopez said in an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio on Wednesday, June 2.
The One Hospital Command Center will facilitate a comprehensive and coordinated response to the Covid-19 pandemic by ensuring effective and efficient health facility referral in Metro Manila.
The CHO head said the city can refer the patients to Davao Regional Medical Center (DRMC) in Tagum City, Davao del Norte, which is still not under critical level. He also said they can refer patients to other medical centers in the region.
To support SPMC, private hospitals -- Davao Doctors Hospital, Metro Davao Medical And Research Center, and Brokenshire Hospital -- have started accepting Covid-19 patients.
Lopez said private hospitals were already informed to start catering to Covid-19 severe and critical patients. Private hospitals were also mandated to allocate at least 20 percent of their total bed capacities for Covid-19 patients.
He admitted, however, that not all hospitals have started to cater to Covid-19 patients due to a lack of facilities and manpower.
The official said the city will be augmenting support to private hospitals to help them in their response to catering to patients.
He also said that the Department of Health (DOH) will also be augmenting personnel to help private hospitals.
"Hinaot unta makapa-augment na sila og nurses so that ma-open up nato ang ubang (We hope they can start augmenting nurses so we can open other) private hospitals, both secondary and tertiary hospitals, aron makatabang (so they can help in treating patients)," Lopez said.
Under a surge, the health official said private hospitals must augment 30 percent of their total bed capacity, while SPMC as a medical center should allocate 50 percent of its total bed capacity.
Due to the rising Covid-19 cases in the city, the Davao City Government has requested the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to elevate the quarantine status of the city to modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) from June 5 to 30, 2021 "to allow a circuit breaker in the surge of patients inside hospitals."