A photo of COVID-19 vaccination at the SM Seaside City Cebu. | file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Coronavirus Disease 2019 vaccinations will eventually affect the Cebu City Health Department’s (CHD) operations, especially when the roll-out will be on full swing.
Doctor Jeffrey Ibones, the CHD officer-in-charge, said that as of now, the operations at the Health Center is normal as there is no vaccine roll-outs while no new batch vaccines have arrived in Cebu just yet.
Still, as the second dose roll-out is nearing, Ibones said there will be a significant amount of personnel that will be needed to man the three existing vaccination sites.
The challenge will be if more first-dose vaccines will arrive and they will have to simultaneously conduct the roll-out for the first and second doses of the vaccines.
Ibones said that there are a limited number of nurses, doctors, and personnel that the CHD currently have and if all of them will be used, this means that other programs of the office, including the usual vaccination of children for other diseases, will be affected.
As of now, there are only at least 38 doctors and personnel in the CHD, which is why the department is now thinking of hiring more job order employees to fill the need for man power, especially during the vaccination roll-outs.
“Ang mga doctors ang problema gyod. Sa SM Seaside gani we are thankful sa Perpetual Succour Hospital kay naay mga resident doctors nga nivolunteer,” said Ibones.
(The problem is the lack of doctors. At SM Seaside, we were thankful to Perpetual Succour Hospital because their resident doctors volunteered.)
He added that if the city opens more sites and no additional manpower will be added, other services of the City Health will be put on pause since the vaccination is of utmost priority.
The CHD is hoping that more volunteer medical personnel can help with the vaccination sites when the roll-out resumes.
Finally, they are hoping that the City Council will approve the additional budget in the supplemental budget for additional manpower so that at least eight doctors can be deployed per vaccination site.
This way, other programs of the department will not be affected by the vaccination and people can continue to avail of City Health services simultaneous with the roll-out.
Read: Mandaue to hire nurses, doctors, midwives, encoders for mass vaccination drive
/bmjo