CCMC nurses resign

CEBU, Philippines —  Several nurses at the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) have resigned after not getting paid by the city government in the past four months – a blow to the city’s efforts in containing the coronavirus, especially now that it is experiencing a resurgence of cases.

On July 24, 2021 alone, the city recorded 308 new cases, bringing its total number of active cases to 2,009, based on data from the Department of Health (DOH)-7.

CCMC’s Administrator Yvonne Cania is yet to release the exact number of nurses who have given up but said she fears more will follow if the city cannot address the problem of compensation.

The worst thing about the situation, she said, is that some of those who resigned are the hospital’s best nurses.

“It’s so painful, but wa man pud tay mabuhat..Di man pud ta pwde kapugong nila, they also have their needs, unya kita dri, pila ra ilang sweldo, kung naa man gani dayon,” Cania said.

Cania revealed in a meeting Sunday that the hospital is understaffed after Acting Mayor Michael Rama said he wants all three floors of the new CCMC building opened this week.

She said this will be a problem, especially that some of the city’s nurses are also being deployed to the Cebu City Quarantine Center.

Rama said he will have the City Council look into the problem. He is also eyeing at a possible subsidy for nurses at private hospitals that also share the problem of being understaffed.

Private Hospitals

The lack of nurses has contributed to the reported queuing at private hospitals, said Retired General Melquiades Feliciano, chief implementer for the Visayas of the national Inter-Agency Task Force.

He said private hospitals in Cebu need around 150 to 200 nurses to take charge of the number of beds dedicated for COVID-19 patients. The current number of nurses is simply not enough.

There are still enough COVID-19 beds at hospitals, Feliciano explained, but patients have to queue for admission at the moment due to lack of personnel who can take care of them.

All in all, Cebu City would need about 200 nurses to maximize its hospitals.

Based on DOH’s COVID-19 tracker, the city has a 57.3 percent critical care utilization rate (CCUR) for all 15 hospitals.

At government-owned hospitals, CCUR is at 65.6 percent, which means 189 COVID beds are occupied and 99 are unoccupied. Up to 42.31 percent of patients are in the ICU and 50 percent are on mechanical ventilators.

In private hospitals, CCUR is at 53.6 11 percent, which means 343 COVID beds are occupied and 297 are vacant. Up to 64.58 percent of the patients are in ICU and 52.46 percent are on mechanical ventilators.

DOH-7 is actually hiring more nurses but the problem is that there have been no nursing graduates for the past two years since the Philippines adopted the K-12 program.

Contact Tracers

Aside from the problem on nurses, Cebu City may also be facing a problem with its contact tracers as they, too, have not received their salary from the city just yet.

Councilor Joel Garganera, deputy chief implementer of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), said the city is lucky to have contact tracers who have a big heart and who have chosen to serve even without pay.

The City Council is expected to act on the budget for the health care workers’ salary on Wednesday. — JMO (FREEMAN)