AMID the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the Department of Health is reminding hospitals and medical centers to begin preparing for the typhoon season and diseases that come with it.
Among the most common rainy days diseases are cough and colds, influenza, dengue, leptospirosis, cholera, and malaria.
“We will need to be educating our local government units (LGUs) that they should have pathways for non-COVID-19 patients also,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a briefing in Saturday.
This means separate facilities and services for COVID and non-COVID patients.
“This refers to services that must continue to be offered by our health facilities despite this COVID-19 crisis,” she added.
Vergeire said the reason the DOH designated COVID-19 referral hospitals in different regions is to prevent COVID-19 patients from crowding all health facilities, leaving out non-COVID-19 patients.
“That’s the very objective of having a referral hospital so that all of our COVID-19 patients would just go to these hospitals. Effectively, other hospitals will be able to handle non-COVID-19 patients,” said Vergeire.
The DOH has designated 74 COVID-19 referral hospitals in different regions.
Among these are the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center, Far North Luzon General Hospital & Training Center, Ilocos Training and Regional Medical Center, Region I Medical Center, Cagayan Valley Medical Center, Southern Isabela Medical Center, Jose B. Lingad Memorial Regional Hospital, Batangas Medical Center, Ospital ng Palawan, Bicol Medical Center, and Bicol Sanitarium;
Western Visayas Medical Center, Western Visayas Sanitarium, Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, Don Emilio del Valle Memorial Hospital, Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center, Zamboanga City Medical Center, Sulu Sanitarium, Basilan General Hospital, Dr. Jose Rizal Memorial Hospital, Northern Mindanao Medical Center, Southern Philippines Medical Center, Davao Regional Medical Center, and Amai Pakpak Medical Center.
In Metro Manila, assigned as COVID-19 referral hospitals are the Philippine General Hospital, Philippine Heart Center, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Lung Center of the Philippines, East Avenue Medical Center, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, San Lazaro Hospital, Tondo Medical Center, Valenzuela Medical Center, and National Children’s Center.
