QC private hospitals agree to refer COVID-19 patients to LGU

Private hospitals have agreed to refer COVID-19 cases to the Quezon City (QC) government for further action, the local government announced Sunday.

In a statement, the QC government said Mayor Joy Belmonte and 30 private hospitals in the city had agreed to work more closely to combat the illness.

Under the improved arrangement, patients manifesting COVID-19 symptoms would be referred to the local government instead of being sent home for further monitoring.

“We can refer the patient to one of our quarantine facilities where they can be given immediate medical attention,” Belmonte said.

Netizens earlier expressed concern after several COVID-19-positive patients in QC were sent home because hospitals were overbooked.

Belmonte noted that under a Health Department memorandum, hospitals were advised to send home COVID-19 patients, whether positive or under investigation, if they were only showing mild symptoms.

“Ang problema, malaki ang tsansa na mahawa pa ng pasyente ang mga kasama nito sa bahay at sa komunidad. Lalo lang lalala ang problema sa halip na masolusyunan,” she said.

The mayor also assured private hospitals that the local government would procure more ventilators and mobile intensive care units, but they also needed “private hospitals to send some of their personnel to assist in operating these machines.”

Meanwhile, the QC government was working on an online system dubbed “Telemedicine” where residents can consult medical experts for COVID-19 concerns in a bid to reduce the influx of patients in hospitals across the city.

A similar effort earlier launched by the Lung Center of the Philippines had paved the way for 3,000 COVID-19 consultations to be carried out through social media.

Data from the Health Department as of Sunday afternoon showed that 123 or 8.7 percent of the country’s 1,418 COVID-19 cases were from Quezon City, the biggest metropolis in the National Capital Region. — DVM, GMA News