Occidental Mindoro power outages affect dialysis treatment in province

The power outages in Occidental Mindoro are affecting the dialysis treatment of several patients in the province, GMA Regional TV Balitang Southern Tagalog Andrew Bernardo reported Tuesday on “24 Oras.”

“Puyat at hirap kasi syempre may sakit na nga po tapos kami pa ang naghihintay kung kelan ang kuryente na ibibigay,” a dialysis patient said.

(We're sleep deprived and ill. And then we need to wait for the power to come back on.)

A center in the province has to run its generator for 24 hours since there were more than 20 dialysis patients per day.

“Kung hindi sila mada-dialysis, una madali silang ma-congest malulunod sila kasi naka-depende na po sa dialysis yung hatak nung tubig at paglinis ng lason sa katawan, kapag hindi nila yun na-meet yun na pwede nang magtuloy-tuloy magko-congest... nagwawala yung iba po namamatay,” Dr. Anna Monica Real-Bracamonte, CEO of Mindoro Occidental Medical Mission Group, said.

(If they don't get dialyzed, first they will easily get congested. They will drown because they depend on dialysis to draw the water and clean the poison from the body. If they don't get the treatment, they can continue to congest... and the others may die.)

However, the dialysis center spends P20,000 per day on fuel to run generators.

Thus, the center might have to raise the dialysis fee for patients.

“Talagang kung hindi kami maga-adjust ng singil namin, papunta kami sa palugi, remember ang binabayaran lang ng PhilHealth ay nasa P2,600 per session,” Real-Bracamonte said.

(If we can't adjust our fees, we might go out of business. Remember PhilHealth only pays P2,600 per session.)

Meanwhile, the arrival of modular generator sets may mitigate the power outage problems in the province.

“Apat ang naka-standby, so apat is ready to be shipped. I instructed the coops in Region 8 to send this portable genset. Paisa-isa muna habang hindi pa kami nakakapag-finalize of where to situate these modular gensets,” said National Electrification Administration (NEA) Administrator Antonio Mariano Almeda.

(Four are on standby, so four are ready to be shipped. I instructed the coops in Region 8 to send these portable gensets, one at a time, while we finalize where to place these modular gensets.)

The provincial government, meanwhile, will shoulder the cost of the fuel for the modular gensets for the hospital and school.

However, the 100% return of the electricity supply in the province will take two months.

“Yan ang aming objective ng NEA together with the energy sector from Department of Energy (DOE) and Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) that within two months we will be able to supply the 29-megawatts peaking requirement of Occidental Mindoro,” Almeda said.

(That is our objective at NEA. Together with the energy sector from DOE and ERC, in two months, we will be able to supply the 29-megawatt peak requirement of Occidental Mindoro.)

The effort was likely to be successful due to the agreement between NEA and PSI to supply five to six megawatts of electricity. This was in addition to the 17 megawatts from Omega’s new power supplier DMCI.

However, there would be an added charge of P8 per kilowatt hour for electricity. While the national government would first shoulder the expense, it was unclear for how long.

The NEA declined to comment if Occidental Mindoro Consolidated Power Corporation (OMCPC) should be held accountable for not being able to fulfill its power supply agreement.

“It should be 12-megawatts. There must be issues that need to be resolved and may oras pa naman para mahimay natin ang mga bagay na yan,” Almeda said.

(It should be 12 megawatts, but some issues need resolving. There is still time for us to go over these issues.) — Richa Noriega/DVM, GMA Integrated News