To-be moms urged to give birth in provincial hospitals

Expectant mothers or to-be moms are encouraged to first go into provincial hospitals instead of going to Cebu City hospitals to give birth there. | stock photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Governor Gwendolyn Garcia has encouraged residents in Cebu province, especially expectant mothers or to-be moms, to first consider going to the provincial hospitals to give birth or  seek medical treatment before proceeding to Cebu City.

This after 10 more new cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were added to the province’s tally  from May 15 to 17.

Of the 10 COVID-19 patients, 4 are expectant mothers or obstetrics (OB) patients, 1 is a newborn and 1 is a one-year-old child.

READ: Maternity patients, newborn among new cases in Cebu

The distribution of the new cases are as follows: 

• Liloan – 1  (OB patient admitted in Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center)
• Talisay City – 4  (2 influenza-like illness patients, one OB patient, one health worker)
• Samboan – 1 (OB patient)
• Toledo City – 1 (newborn)
• San Fernando – 1 (1-year-old)
• Badian – 1 (OB patient)
• Health worker – 1

“Ang ato gyud karon gi-advise, as much as possible ari lang sa ta sa provincial hospital especially kining manganak,” Garcia said.

(What we really advise them is to stay there in our provincial hospitals, for the time being, especially those expecting labor.)

The Capitol is currently maintaining four 100-bed capacity hospitals: the Carcar Provincial Hospital in the south, Balamban Provincial Hospital in the west, Danao Provincial Hospital in the north and the Bogo Provincial Hospital in the extreme northern Cebu.

Garcia said the four provincial hospitals were equipped and were capable to perform birth through Caesarian Section.

For the Balamban District Hospital, Garcia said the Provincial Health Office was already looking for an OB-Gynecologist who would be detailed in the 25-bed facility which served the towns of Bantayan, Santa Fe and Madridejos in Bantayan Island.

Garcia said the Provincial Health Office (PHO) had already sent notices to the city and municipal health officers to advise them that their patient would be referred and handled in the provincial hospitals as much as possible in order to minimize risk and exposure from having to come to Cebu City which now had over 1,700 cases of COVID-19.

Read more: VSMMC denies cross-infection among expectant mothers

Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC), one of the hospitals in Cebu City handling COVID-19 cases, however, debunked claims that there were expectant mothers who visited the hospital and acquired the virus there.

“In light of local transmission in Cebu, the Medical Center has opted for the swabbing for RT-PCR (reverse transcript polymerase chain reaction) testing for SARS-CoV-2 of expectant mothers who came in for delivery. This is done for the safety of the mother, and the medical team attending to them,” reads the hospitals official statement signed by its administrator Dr. Gerardo Aquino.

Read more: DOH: Too early to tell if Cebu province is PH’s new COVID-19 epicenter

“Much of COVID-19 cases of expectant mothers without any signs and symptoms of the disease got intercepted at the Medical Center only when they are about to deliver. This implies that they may have contracted the virus prior to seeking perinatal care at our facility,” it added.

The VSMMC has attended to a total of 76 COVID-19 patients, of whom 23 remain confined, 10 have been discharged, and 19  succumbed to the disease.

The VSMMC administration assured that ‘strict infection control protocols’ were being implemented to also ensure the safety of other patients./dbs