Vice Gov. Rene L. Relampagos
As the Provincial Government of Bohol (PGBh) continues to deal with the various health challenges brought by the Coronavirus disease (Covid), the present administration under the leadership of Gov. Arthur C. Yap and Vice Gov. Rene Lopez Relampagos keeps on improving the province’s capacity, services, and facilities to manage these health concerns.
Due to the continued surge of infections, it is inevitable that there will be congestion of Covid patients in the hospitals.
It is for this reason that the PGBh is extending its assistance for other treatment and isolation facilities to help address this problem.
As this developed, Relampagos and the members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Bohol (SP) recently approved a resolution that gave authority to Gov. Yap to sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital (GCGMH)!for the use of the province’s Central Isolation Center as the step-down care facility to be used by mild Covid patients.
According to Dr. Fruserna Mary A. Uy, Bohol Provincial Diagnostic and Ambulatory Care Center (BPDACC) Administrator, the MOA will be entered into by PGBh and GCGMH in order to decongest the latter of Covid patients who are not seriously ill and are classified as in a stable state.
Dr. Uy said that GCGMH is congested with patients to the extent that even those who are in critical conditions are already being treated outside the intensive care units designated for these patients.
Moreover, Uy explained that a step-down facility is a facility where recuperating patients will be given primary care, monitored, and get rehabilitated outside the hospitals.
She, likewise, explained that the step-down facility which is located at BPDACC in barangay Dao, Tagbilaran City, will be completely manned since it is a Department of Health (DOH)-licensed and PhilHealth accredited facility.
Pursuant to the agreement, GCGMH will refer patients to PGBh for step-down care of suspect, probable and confirmed Covid patients whose medical conditions do not need ventilator support and high flow nasal cannula, those who do not need Intravenous medications like Remdesiver and Tocilizumab, and those who can appropriately be managed in a primary care facility.
It further provides that PGBh will have the sole responsibility for the patient’s care once transferred to the step-down facility since the patients for transfer are already discharged from GCGMH.
Relampagos is in full support of this undertaking. He said the utilization of the province-owned facility is a way of enhancing the programs of the PGBh that are geared towards taking care of the weak which is one of the fundamental pillars of development of the Provincial Government.
Relampagos said the provision of a step-down facility by the Provincial Government will help alleviate overcrowding of patients in the hospitals by freeing more beds for those who need them the most. The provision of a step-down facility will likewise provide additional support to a person who no longer requires acute inpatient care, but does require assistance in re-establishing themselves in the community.