BAGUIO CITY March 31 – The Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC) admitted it’s running out of supply of the required personal protective equipment (PPEs) for its health workers attending to the medical needs of persons under investigation (PUIs) and confirmed Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) cases in the city in the light of the increasing number of PUIs and confirmed COVID-19 cases.
BGHMC Medical Center Chief Dr. Ricardo Ruñez, Jr. disclosed based on the hospital’s inventory, the available PPEs for health workers will only last until Friday, thus, the need for concerned government agencies and the city government to look into the provision of adequate PPEs for designated health workers to attend to the COVID-19 patients to prevent them from being infected.
He expressed the hospital’s gratitude to the concerned government agencies, the city government and the individuals that provided them with the initial supply of their PPEs but the health workers need more supply of masks, body suits, among others, to be used when attending to PUIs and confirmed COVID-19 patients in the said health facility.
Ruñez claimed health workers assigned to attend to PUIs and confirmed COVID-19 patients are properly protected as the hospital makes sure they wear the appropriate PPEs before attending to their patients but the increasing number of PUIs and confirmed COVID-19 patients seeking medical attention resulted to the depletion of the available supply of PPEs, especially there is still a long way to go in the battle against the highly contagious illness.
The BGHMC official pointed out the hospital’s capability to attend to the increasing number of PUIs and confirmed COVID-19 patients will definitely be compromised once the available supply of PPEs will be depleted, thus, the need to ensure the provision of adequate PPEs before its available supply runs out.
On her part, DOH-CAR Regional Director Dr. Amelita M. Pangilinan revealed that based on existing guidelines, the provision of procured PPEs to hospitals in the different parts of the region is based on the number of COVID-19 cases the health facilities are given considering the limited supply being provided by the agency’s central office.
She stated there are some local governments and hospitals that have been requesting PPEs for their health workers but the agency could not provide the requested supplies as the said localities and health facilities do not have confirmed COVID-19 cases to attend, thus those supply of PPEs have been given to the hospitals that have already confirmed COVID-19 cases.
By Dexter A. See
