By Rod Lagusad
The Philippine Orthopedic Center temporarily suspended its out-patient department while its emergency room will still be open after more than 100 of its staff tested positive for COVID-19.
About 117 out of 180 personnel swabbed turned out to be positive, the hospital revealed in a statement on Saturday.
Due to this, the hospital announced that it will also offer online consultation temporarily through its Facebook page, POC Orthopedic Surgery OPD, in place of the outpatient face to face consultation.
Aside from this, elective surgeries will also be put on hold.
All POC offices and service areas have already been disinfected and working hours for the rest of the staff are in place.
A second dose rollout for CoronaVac, the vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech from China, will be conducted from April 5 to 12 while continuous and mandatory swabbing for other personnel will be on April 7.
POC Chief Jose Pujalte Jr, who also tested positive for COVID-19, assured that even if the hospital has been hit hard, they will still continue to serve the public.
Chief Pujalte noted, “This is what we signed up for. This is what being a doctor and health worker means in the time of pandemic: that we man the front lines and save lives even as we put our own in peril”.
Nurse Sean Herbert Velchez, the President of the National Orthopedic Hospital Workers Union, shared that the hospital has about 1,300 staff and 90 employees are being tested every week based on targeted and random selection while those experiencing symptoms can go directly to their triage area to be swabbed.
Velchez explained that this week, the number of employees being tested was doubled because there will be a second dose rollout of CoronaVac vaccine next week.
Based on the report he received, most of those who tested positive are asymptomatic while others are experiencing mild symptoms only.
The hospital is seeking additional personal protective equipment (PPE) especially face masks since there is a need for healthcare workers to wear double masks as a precaution.
Currently, there are 216 patients confined at the hospital. Aside from this, there are also 12 COVID-19 patients.
Isolation facilities for healthcare workers
Meanwhile, POC cited in its statement that they have coordinated with the One Hospital Command Center of the Department of Health (DOH) to facilitate the quarantine of its staff.
As of April 2, 36 are already admitted in the quarantine centers while 40 are in quarantine inside the POC.
Velchez disclosed that earlier, those who tested positive struggled to find quarantine facilities.
He added, “Kagaya po ng nararasan ng iba nating mga institutions nahihirapan talaga silang maghanap dahil punuan na po noong panahon na ‘yung mga isolation facilities. (Just like what other institutions have been experiencing, they really had a hard time looking for [quarantine facilities] because isolation facilities were full).”
He noted that because of the issue, the relationship with the Department of Health (DOH) strengthened through Oplan Kalinga and POC was included in the loop.
Velchez revealed that they are urging DOH to open more quarantine facilities for healthcare workers and others who have no capability to be in home quarantine due to clustering of infections in households.
“Isa pa roon sa major fear ng mga health workers is ayaw nilang mahawa pa ‘yung iba. ‘Yung mental anguish na baka mahawa ko ‘yung aking mga kamag-anak nandoon talaga sa health workers (One major fear of health workers is that they might transfer the virus to others. There is the mental anguish among health workers that their family might catch it),” he explained.
Velchez stressed that the lives of healthcare workers matter and they serve as the heart of the healthcare system, the last line of defense against the COVID-19.
“We play a unique role na dahil nag-limit ‘yung ibang mga national hospitals doon sa pagtanggap nila ng mga pasyente na mayroong orthopedic conditions, kami lahat ‘yung pinuntahan. Kami ‘yung sumalo ng lahat ng mga pasyente na ‘yun including mga cancer na related sa muscles and bones (We have been playing a unique role when other national hospitals limited their services for patients with orthopedic conditions and all of them come to us. We have to accommodate all of them including cancer-related muscles and bones cases),” he detailed.
He urged people to strictly follow the health protocols and avoid being complacent as he reasoned, “Kasi ang best analogy diyan is kung sinisinat na ang mga ospital ibig sabihin nun malala na sa community (The best analogy is if hospitals are getting slight fevers, this means that the community is in serious condition)”.
