DUE to recent events within its premises, the management of the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) in Bacolod City has limited its admission at the Department of Pediatrics to “extreme cases only” effective immediately.
Dr. Julius Drilon, medical chief of CLMMRH said yesterday, July 31, that it has been determined that certain patient watchers have become ill during their stay at the low-risk areas and are eventually tested positive for coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
Drilon said the doctors and nurses who were by contact tracing determined to have been exposed were isolated after testing positive as well.
In fact, he said, five to six staff members of the hospital are tested positive for Covid-19 every week lately.
As to those who started to exhibit Covid-19 symptoms, Drilon added that they were quarantined at the hospital and will also be tested.
Earlier, CLMMRH also limited the admission at the Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology to "extreme emergency cases" because of the same reason.
Currently, only the operations under the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology have returned to its basic services.
Drilon said that since we are still in a pandemic, the hospital management will continue to impose the rules set by the National Inter-Agency Task Force and the Department of Health.
He noted that they have reduced bed capacities to meet the requirement of at least a meter distance for each bed set by these agencies.
Asked about the issue of the watchers outside the compound of the hospital, Drilon said, “we only choose whom to be allowed inside the hospital (and) this is not free for all.”
“Where am I going to put them inside the hospital (if they are allowed to get in)?” he asked.
The hospital chief maintained that it’s not their responsibility where these watchers, who are mostly non-residents of Bacolod, would stay or go.
He emphasized that they cannot just take risk considering that the positivity rate is almost 9 to ten percent recently which is three times more than last month.