Hiring of emergency health workers bolsters city’s Covid efforts

There is a need for the emergency hiring of health workers  for the city’s temporary treatment and monitoring facilities (TTMSs) and the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center  (BGHMC) as the Summer Capital continues to grapple with the surge in coronavirus-2019 (Covid-19) Delta variant cases.

Thus, declared City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office  head Antonette Anaban, September 14, at the online management committee meeting of local officials led by Mayor Benjamin Magalong,  as she shared updates on the city’s ongoing Delta variant contingency plan.

This includes engaging with volunteer doctors of the Baguio-Benguet Medical Society at the Baguio City Community Isolation Unit (BCCIU) to assist moderate and stable cases from hospitals or direct admissions at the TTMFs.

Anaban said BGHMC  plans to enter into a memorandum of agreement or any appropriate mechanism with SLU Hospital to justify the sharing of resources with the latter.

SLU Hospital, she claimed, has already signified interest to partner with BGHMC.

The city’s contingency plan has several key result areas including:  Stricter border control; monitoring of compliance with MPHS; MPHS in establishments and workplaces; expanded age-based restrictions; limited mass gathering; conduct of classes, board review, registration, examinations within Baguio; promote use of telemedicine/telecommunication; management of the dead; implementation of rolling stores and market-to-home delivery; and vaccination program.

Expanded risk-based/targeted testing; aggressive contact tracing; isolation/quarantine policy and increase in bed capacities; community/granular lockdown; monitoring of critical care utilization; augmentation of health workers; inventory/procurement of critical equipment; stockpiling of critical supplies and medicines; real-time referral and coordination of cases; mental health and wellness programs, are the other key result areas. – Gaby B. Keith, 16.Sept.2021