The Department of Health (DOH) will hire nurses to augment the current workforce in the Level 2 and Level 3 private hospitals in Negros Oriental that are now full of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients.

DOH-Negros Oriental provincial chief Dr. Socrates Villamor, in an interview Wednesday, said the largest private hospitals in the province have responded to the request of the government for additional bed capacities for Covid-19 patients.

By providing additional isolation beds, there is a need to also complement this with government-counterpart nurses so as not to overwhelm the already exhausted workforce in these hospitals, he said in mixed English and Cebuano.

The hiring is one of the measures being undertaken by the government to respond to mounting calls for the imposition of a higher form of community quarantine due to the rise in Covid-19 cases in the province.

Villamor said the Silliman University Medical Center (SUMC) has pledged 15 additional beds and will be receiving 16 nurses; Ace Dumaguete Doctors Hospital, 30 beds, 13 nurses; and Negros Polymedic Hospital, around 30 beds and 13 nurses.

The exact number of additional beds will still have to be finalized, he said.

Holy Child Hospital, meanwhile, does not have the capacity to expand its Covid-19 isolation beds as it is just a small facility, he noted.

The DOH will announce the temporary hiring for at least three months of the augmentation nurses, preferably those from Negros Oriental and with hospital experience, Villamor said. (PNA)