This expected surge of confirmed COVID-19 cases will now require the restructuring of policies to address the nursing workforce shortage in hospitals, particularly in intensive care units. The surge of confirmed cases leading to an increase in demand for nursing services has significantly strained local health care systems. Consequently, this left the hospitals with a skeleton staff that is just enough to keep essential services running. Some hospitals have forced their nurses to undergo home quarantine after being exposed to positive cases. More than 130 health care workers in Central Visayas have been infected with COVID-19 as of June 15. The Cebu Medical Society has raised its concerns over the city’s exhausted and overwhelmed health system citing health workforce shortage and scarcity of medical equipment. While this policy has the potential to increase the supply of health workers, particularly nurses, this might not be enough when we reach the peak of 75,000 COVID-19 positive cases expected to occur in the next few months. With the current state of local health systems in the Visayas, this “ideal” ratio will be hard to comply with, risking quality care and patient outcomes.Įarly into the pandemic, the government was quick to anticipate this and published a call for nurse volunteers who are willing to provide their services to the designated COVID-19 referral hospitals. Maintaining appropriate staffing in health care facilities, particularly ICUs, is essential to providing a safe work environment for health care workers and safe patient care. Interestingly, the DOH, in consultation with the Philippine General Hospital, has recommended a 1:1 nurse-to-patient ratio for ICUs. More than 50% of ICU beds in Central Visayas have already been occupied. Notably, Eastern Visayas has only nine ICU beds while Central Visayas has 111. The effective management of critically ill patients infected with COVID-19 is dependent upon the efficient provision of evidence-based nursing care. Patients with COVID-19 sometimes develop severe and critical conditions that will warrant admission in the intensive care unit (ICU). As of June 29, there are more than 7000 confirmed cases in Central Visayas, with Cebu City having the highest number of confirmed cases in the country. This includes Cebu City, Cebu province, Ormoc City, Southern Leyte, Leyte, and Samar. The Department of Health (DOH) has recently identified six areas in the Visayas as emerging COVID-19 hotspots. Sadly, the country is still in the pandemic phase of the COVID-19 outbreak and more cases are expected to be confirmed in the following weeks. With limited manpower and resources, hospitals can only do so much in a pandemic.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |