SAN FERNANDO CITY, July 22 (PIA) –– An official from the Ilocos Training and Regional Medical Center (ITRMC), this city, stresses the importance of partnership especially with local government units (LGUs) in La Union amid the continuing fight against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID1-19) pandemic
Medical Specialist III Marvin F. Munar, COVID-19 focal of ITRMC, said while the hospital is coping with the increasing trend of cases during the last few weeks, he said LGUs play a great role in decongesting the hospital which, at present, is at a critical level.
“In the last two weeks, we have been monitoring our intensive care unit (ICU) utilization rate and we’ve seen that we have been hitting 85 percent and above,” Munar said,
Munar said prior to the spike of the COVID-19 cases in the province, the hospital decided to increase the ICU beds from 29 to 52.
“Nagdagdag na tayo ng ICU beds kasi dumadami ang severe to critical cases na kailangang bantayan talaga. Iyong ICU beds natin dati nasa 29 beds lang, nagdagdag kami ng 23, so ang total ICU beds natin ay 52 na solely for COVID patients” he said.
Further, he said the authorized total bed capacity of the ITRMC, which is a tertiary and apex hospital in the region, is 306.
Of this number, 135 beds or 44 percent are dedicated for COVID-19 cases, 52 of which are the ICU beds.
In a dialogue with the Provincial Government of La Union and City Government of San Fernando, Dr. Marvin Munar of ITRMC highlights the importance of the presence of a functional Healthcare Provider Network to be able to provide holistic healthcare services to all the constituents of La Union. (Photo courtesy of PGLU)
Recently, Munar informed that the Provincial Government of La Union (PGLU) called for a meeting with representatives from the city government of San Fernando and the ITRMC and concretized plans for intensified COVID-19 response.
“We extend our gratitude to the PGLU and the city government of San Fernando for their assurance of whole-of-province approach and proactive measures to manage COVID-19 cases in the province. For our part, the ITRMC will continue providing quality healthcare to our patients,” he said.
Munar said majority or 85 percent of its COVID-19 patients are from La Union; around 20 to 30 percent of them are from San Fernando City.
COVID-19 test results
While there was a surge of COVID-19 cases in the province lately, the ITRMC continues to accept reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) swab samples with no backlogs.
“We are compliant with the existing protocols in terms of the hours of release and the issuance of results,” Munar said.
He added, “We are within the prescribed period of three days, and we are compliant.”
ITRMC is the first hospital in Region 1 that can perform an independent testing for the disease. (JCR/AMB/JPD, PIA La Union)
