Benguet is planning to hire doctors from the province, who recently passed the licensure examination, to work at the Benguet General Hospital once they took their oath.
Gov. Melchor Diclas said the provincial government is looking for at least eight doctors to have their residency at BeGH since most of the resident doctors did not renew their contracts to pursue their sub-specialty and pre-residency training.
“We are in need of doctors especially in this pandemic. We need extra manpower to run our hospital,” he said.
Earlier, there were 18 medical personnel that tested positive of Covid-19, which forced BeGH to close one of its wings for the Covid-ward. Other non-medical personnel of the hospital are also testing positive causing the hospital to be understaffed at times to give time for the affected personnel to undergo quarantine.
With this, the province welcomes the 20 interns to be assigned at the BeGH under the Department of Labor and Employment’s Government Internship Program. The interns, who are fresh graduates of various courses, would be conducting clerical jobs in the hospital, Diclas said.
He said the province’s cases now are manageable, though the numbers of those being admitted under critical care are still high.
“It’s quite challenging because we are caring for Covid-19 patients and then the typhoon came so we had to move those using tents, as a temporary area for emergency cases, inside the already full hospital,” he said.
The province as of Oct. 13 has active cases of 3,320, total recoveries of 15,717 and total deaths of 615 having a total confirmed cases of 19,652 of Covid-19. Benguet remains under GCQ until Oct. 31 where heightened restrictions are still in effect. – Ofelia C. Empian
