News and UpdatesIn the NewsDocs ask Guv: ECQ now!

Docs ask Guv: ECQ now!

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Doctors in Negros Oriental are appealing to Gov. Roel Degamo and to Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo to immediately declare and strictly enforce the Enhanced Community Quarantine “before it is too late”.

In a statement, the Negros Oriental Medical Society headed by Dr. Mansueto Gumban, lamented their “limited medical resources” to fight the coronavirus.

“Our frontliners are brave but are very afraid because so many of our fellow healthcare workers have already died because of CoViD-19,” their statement read.

Dr. Ma. Carmelita Vera Cruz, an anesthesiologist, said the medical doctors are outraged. “We strongly believe that an enhanced community quarantine is our only chance against this coronavirus,” she said.

She said it seems that even after several meetings with the government leaders and their advisers, the significance of the need to “flatten the curve” has not been fully understood.

On Friday afternoon, Dr. Joven Occeña, an anesthesiologist, announced on his Facebook wall that the local CoViD-19 Intubation Team is “temporarily disbanded”. He gave two conditions for their return to work: 1) a declaration of Enhanced Community Quarantine upon Negros Oriental; and 2) provision of complete personal protective equipment and gear.

He explained in the thread that it would be “too risky” for the team to continue intubating CoViD patients without the appropriate protective gear. “Sige ra lip service,” he said.

Friends of the doctor agreed. One of them said, “No PPE-no intubation.” Another friend commented that “Medicine is a calling, not a suicide mission.”

The doctors lamented the lack of clear coordination between the Province and City, and that each is planning on his own.

Assistant Provincial Health Office Dr. Liland Bustamante-Estacion clarified that one body was sealed in a body bag and a sealed casket, transported to Bindoy, about 91 kilometers north of Dumaguete, and was buried there Wednesday night. They learned on Thursday that the patient tested negative for CoViD.

She said the other body was cremated. It was not clear, however, how long after the death was the body cremated.

Pulmonologists have confirmed that the usual burial in a cemetery for CoViD patients is not medically acceptable. They said that even cadavers of CoViD patients can continue to contaminate other people. “That is why it has to be cremated ASAP.”

“Many people also do not obey doctors’ advice to stay home maybe because they do not quite understand the need to stay away from people,” Dr. Vera Cruz lamented.

“We are actually very afraid of what could happen here in the Province in the coming weeks, while we are so ill-equipped to deal with CoViD,” she said. “Our only chance is when we could flatten the curve.”

The bell-like curve refers to the projected number of people who can be infected with CoViD-19 over a certain period of time. In the Philippines, the Department of Health and the World Health Organization have estimated that as many as 75,000 people could be infected in the next two to three months.

Dr. Vera Cruz explained that a steep curve (due to exponential growth) develops when too many people get infected with the virus in a short span of time.

“This means, more people will have to be hospitalized, and a percentage of them may need critical care and ventilator support.” She warned that since the Province lacks ventilators, those who would need intensive care will not be able to get it.

Too many patients in the hospital tend to overload it beyond capacity.

On the other hand, she said that ‘flattening the curve’ means “doing maneuvers that would slow down the rate of infection, thus, slowing down the influx of seriously-ill patients who might need intensive care.” She added it would allow hospitals with limited resources to cope with the number of patients.

In that manner, the health care system is better able to attend to each new case more completely with enough equipment even for a prolonged period of time.

Dr. Vera Cruz stressed that physical distancing is of “utmost importance in flattening the curve”. She urged government to implement stringent measures to ensure that “people truly keep their distance by staying off the streets and public places, out of their offices, and inside their homes”.

On Friday night, Ace Dumaguete Doctors hospital announced that they can no longer accommodate CoViD-19 suspected patients due to their “dwindling personal protective equipment and other supplies.

“This war will not be fought in hospitals with our frontliners but with yourselves in your homes,” Ace Dumaguete medical director Dr. Brenda Diputado told the public, urging them to stay home.

Dr. Vera Cruz added that the constant influx of travelers from outside the Province is “not helping at all as each person is a potential carrier of the virus”.

The NOMS said imposing curfews at night is “useless”. They said that at daytime, “there are just too many people walking around in public places anyway”.

Meanwhile, the Negros Oriental chapter of the Philippine Nurses Association, together with the deans of local Nursing schools, and the head/chief nurses of the hospitals here, echoed the call of the medical doctors in asking for a declaration and strict enforcement of an ECQ to contain the spread of CoViD-19.

Frances Almira Cal, president of the PNA chapter, addressed their call to the Governor, the Dumaguete City Mayor, and the policymakers: “The courage of our frontliners is not enough to fight this pandemic. We need your help to protect our healthcare workers so we can care and protect our people.” (Irma Faith Pal)

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