THE city is looking to bolster the healthcare capacity of its facilities by increasing bed capacity, as well as hiring more healthcare workers as personnel shortages threaten the city in light of increasing COVID-19 incidence.
According to Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong, the city is currently working on a scheme to hire some 50 more nurses to supplement the strained healthcare workers of the city’s various private hospitals.
30 of the nurses to be hired will be paid for by the city government, while the city is still working out a request for the Department of Health (DOH) to pay for the remaining 20 nurses.
The city is also bolstering its step-down facility bed capacity for mild and asymptomatic cases.
According to Magalong, the city will be using up P20 million to add some 150 beds to the city’s isolation unit at the Sto. Niño Hospital, which is one of the city’s primary isolation facilities.
The addition of beds would bring the current 879 beds available in the city to 1,029.
The increase in bed capacity is intended to ensure sufficient capacity in preparation for an expected COVID-19 incidence surge after the more infectious Delta variant was detected in the city.
Aside from the Sto. Nino hospital, the local government also operates the 316-bed isolation center at the Roxas and Hernandez halls of the Baguio Teachers Camp, the 10 bed Magsaysay hall, the 102 bed Laurel dormitory for health workers, and the 12-bed central triage facility, along with the six beds in Eurotel and the 40-bed Ferioni apartment which was made available courtesy of the office of the Civil Defense (OCD) in the Cordillera.
The isolation units are more needed now that the city is pushing for all cases, even asymptomatic ones, to undergo facility-based quarantine and isolation for proper handling of the disease and prevention of its spread among family members.
