For Covid-19: Sorsogon restructures health facilities ranking
The Sorsogon provincial government restructured the level of prioritization of health facilities in the province and their utilization for Covid-19 patients and non-Covid admissions.
This health care response of the provincial government was made by virtue of Executive Order (EO) No. 25-2021 issued by Governor Francis Joseph G. Escudero.
The EO provides authority over the local health facilities to identify patients with less danger of health risk and reassign to primary health care hospitals or facilities those patients with severe ailments due to Covid-19.
It also provides guidelines on the rational and efficient utilization of health facilities through the health care provider network in Sorsogon. The EO aims to provide more hospital beds to Covid-19 patients.
Escudero’s order also directs hospitals to follow Department of Health (DOH) guidelines on the admissions of patients with moderate, severe and critical conditions.
The EO states that confirmed cases of Covid-19 who are asymptomatic and with mild symptoms may be quarantined in the facility or at home following the given guidelines. They may no longer be admitted in a hospital, except if the patient belongs to vulnerable groups like senior citizens, with hypertension, diabetic, with heart condition, with co-morbidities including those age 0-5 years old.
The directive also provides for a step down care where patients who show signs of improvement shall be referred to the lower appropriate facility for step down care after proper coordination with the concerned facility with the condition that the patient is clinically healed or recovered.
The role of Barangay Health and Response Teams is crucial to the new EO as they have to continuously monitor the patients sent to home quarantine until they are discharged from quarantine.
One of the most important provisions in the EO is the reiteration of the role of Barangay LGU in the implementation of health protocols as stated in the DILG Memorandum No. 2020-23 and other relevant issuances from the national government agencies.
Under this DILG order, barangay officials are mandated to implement in their area of jurisdiction the prevention, detection, isolation, treatment and reintegration strategies for patients with Covid-19. Failure of barangay officials to perform their responsibilities may be a ground for disciplinary actions for dereliction of duty, if proven guilty. (MBAtun/PIA 5/Sorsogon)