An official of the Philippine College of Physicians is recommending the conversion of gymnasiums as temporary makeshift hospitals to ensure that Patients under Monitoring for the COVID 19 virus can be quarantined.
Dr. Kenneth Coo, national chair of the crisis preparedness and management committee of the Philippine College of Physicians, made the recommendation before a special session of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Negros Oriental Thursday.
Coo, who is also the medical director of Holy Child Hospital and medical director and head of operations of One Rescue EMS in Negros Oriental said gymnasiums would be better than public school classrooms because of the need for social distancing. “If you have four PUMs in classrooms, you need a guard to ensure that the patients will not get close to each other,” he said.
However, in a gymnasium, you would only need one watcher to look out for several patients, he said.
The Negros Oriental Medical Society has also offered to train Barangay Health Workers on how to monitor PUMs.
Once the patients exhibit more symptoms of COVID 19, that would be the time they will be admitted in COVID-designated hospitals, Coo said, and if they do not exhibit symptoms after 14 days, they can be sent home.
Coo said their association is also pushing for the designation of COVID 19 hospitals in the provinces, similar to what the DOH has done in Metro Manila to prevent in-hospital transmissions and to unburden the other hospitals who have to focus on other illnesses.
He said once patients are exhibiting symptoms of COVID 19, doctors should immediately assume that they are dealing with a COVID 19 case while awaiting for swab test results.
The death of three patients in Dumaguete hospitals this week who exhibited COVID 19 symptoms has also caused fear among health workers, he revealed.
“One husband came to tell the head nurse that his wife is not reporting for work anymore because she is scared. Now that it has happened, there could be more who will follow,” Coo said.
He also noted that many doctors are also not reporting for work, claiming that they are out of town. “I wonder where ‘out of town’ is as you cannot go anywhere outside of Negros Oriental anymore,” he said. (Irma Faith Pal)