Majority of COVID-19 patients in city hospitals are non-residents

Majority of COVID-19 patients admitted in Iloilo City hospitals are non-residents, according to the city government’s COVID-19 Team.

“Some 25 percent of admissions are city residents while 75 percent are patients from other provinces, resulting to high healthcare utilization rate (HCUR),” said COVID-19 focal person Dr. Roland Jay Fortuna.

Data presented by independent analytics group OCTA Research on Feb. 19 showed that Iloilo City recorded an HCUR of 58 percent, the highest in the country.

The city, which is at low risk classification for COVID-19 case trend, is currently under Alert Level 3.

To address the admission needs of residents, the city government requested for urgent installation of a modular hospital.

This, even as it initiated the establishment of the City Hospital, the construction of which will take two years.

“If there is high utilization of hospital beds and reaching full capacity, the alert level will also go up. That’s why we need to increase bed capacity that will be catering for COVID-19 patients. The referrals from provinces increase the health care utilization rate of the city,” said Fortuna.IMT