Three government hospitals in Iloilo province will be upgraded to Level 2 as part of efforts to combat the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) outbreak and meet other medical requirements of the residents.

In a virtual presser on Friday, Department of Health – Western Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH-WV CHD) Director Adriano Suba-an said the plan aims to decrease the number of patients being confined at the Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC), a tertiary hospital here.

“All the government hospitals in the province of Iloilo are either infirmary or Level 1. We need to have a Level 2 hospital so that patients going into the Western Visayas Medical Center, which is present in Iloilo City, will decrease and other patients can be accommodated by other hospitals, especially in the province of Iloilo,” he said.

The hospitals to be upgraded are the Western Visayas Sanitarium in the municipality of Sta. Barbara and the Don Jose S. Monfort Medical Center Extension Hospital in Barotac Nuevo, both DOH-retained hospitals, as well as the Iloilo Provincial Hospital in Pototan.

Level 1 hospitals have minimum health care services while Level 2 hospitals have an intensive care unit and specialist doctors.

“At the end of the assessment and provision of technical assistance, three of the hospitals present in Iloilo province will eventually be upgraded to Level 2 hospitals,” he said.

Meanwhile, Suba-an said the regional health department has been preparing for the worst-case scenario as cases of the Covid-19 Delta variant have been detected in Western Visayas, particularly in Antique. (PNA)