PMA & health workers suggestions meant to help and not to degrade the gov't

The Philippine Medical Association said Monday that Medical frontliners gave suggestions on the country’s pandemic response to help authorities and not to demean the government as claimed by President Rodrigo Duterte. 

Photo credit: mb.com.ph

Healthcare workers in an earlier reports said that they are exhausted and overwhelmed by the surge in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients needing hospital care and are urging the government to shift the National Capital Region (NCR or Metro Manila) back to the stricter Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) for two weeks.

The President, however, also told health workers to “do the soul-searching” and “do not try to demean government” by criticizing it. 

No. Our purpose really is to help, to get some breather, to really make sure that we are doing the right thing,

said PMA president Dr. Jose Santiago Jr. and he added,

We have to learn from the past 4 months, what are the weaknesses we had so we can strengthen that in the coming days or in the coming weeks so we are more prepared,

A lack of health workers is among the problems that the government needs to address. While one nurse ideally should tend to only one patient in intensive care, nurses in some hospitals take care of 10 to 15 coronavirus patients, Santiago said. 

Aside from this problem, the Healthcare Professionals Alliance against COVID-19 earlier said the government should also solve the following issues: 

• Failure in finding coronavirus carries due to inaccurate rapid antibody tests;
• Errors in quarantine protocols;
• Insufficient modes of public transport; 
• Public disobedience of health guidelines;
• Breach of quarantine rules in workplaces; and
• Delays in the distribution of cash aid for displaced workers and the poorest families. 

Metro Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal and Bulacan would go back to modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) from Aug. 4 to 18, Duterte announced on Sunday.

MECQ bans buses, jeepneys, taxis, ride-hailing services, tricycles from plying the roads, and limits the operation of manufacturing plants and other establishments to half of their capacity. 

On Sunday, coronavirus infections has broken the 100, 000 mark. In earlier reports, an expert from the University of the Philippines had warned that the cases for COVID-19 would rise up to 150,000 by the end of August. 

It’s really something that we have to prepare [for] in this kind of battle, 

Santiago said of the case projection.