LGUs urged to set up COVID-19 telemedicine hotlines

Local governments were urged on Wednesday to set up their own COVID-19 telemedicine hotlines to assist residents seeking medical attention amid a fresh spike in infections.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said local telemedicine hotlines can help decongest hospital emergency rooms.

“If only we have this incident command or this telemedicine in our local governments, then we can already triage at that level and our emergency rooms will not get congested,” she said at a briefing.

Vergeire said the One Hospital Command, a referral system for healthcare providers and medical transportation, is being swamped with up to 400 calls each day.

The Department of Health (DOH) has already sought the assistance of telecommunications companies to increase the number of phone lines to accommodate more calls.

Vergeire also reminded the public that they can call regional offices for hospitalization concerns.

Filipinos can also call the DOH hotline at 1555 or 02-894-COVID or log onto econsult.cloudmd.com.ph, healthnow.ph, and seeyoudoc.com.

The Philippines has 741,181 COVID-19 cases with 603,310 recoveries and 13,191 deaths as of Tuesday afternoon. -MDM, GMA News