SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union – The Department of Health Center for Health and Development (DOH-CHD) in the Ilocos Region will shortly dispatch volunteer doctors and nurses from DOH-retained hospitals in the Ilocos to the National Capital Region (NCR) to help their fellow medical workers in Metro Manila.
The move comes on the heels of the DOH’s called for ‘reinforcements’ to augment its front-liners facing overwhelming numbers of Covid-19 cases in Metro Manila and neighboring provinces of Laguna, Bulacan, Cavite, and Batangas.
Some 28 volunteers have already enlisted for the mission, 15 of whom are from the Region 1 Medical Center, four from the Treatment and Rehabilitation Center (TRC) Dagupan, one from TRC LA Union, and eight from the Ilocos Training and Regional Medical Center in La Union (ITRMC).
The number may further increase as some are still unsure whether to volunteer or not for the mission. DOH-CHD-1 information officer Dr. Rheuel Bobis said the medical front-liners will be dispatched as soon as possible.
“Similar instance already happened last year. We sent willing doctors and nurses to Metro Manila last year,” Bobis said, citing health workers from Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center in Ilocos Norte, ITRMC in La Union, and R1MC in Dagupan City.
The volunteers deployed will be assigned to the Covid-19 referral centers like the Lung Center of the Philippines, Philippine General Hospital, San Lazaro Hospital, and others, Bobis said, adding the DOH will shoulder their travel and living costs including necessary test costs.
R1MC chief Dr. Joseph Roland Mejia expressed confidence the medical professionals they will send would not suffer major health events as the majority of them have already been inoculated.