NV hospital left with only 2 anesthesiologists

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya — Wanted: Anesthesiologists for this land-locked province.

Local health authorities fear a breakdown in healthcare services in the province as 10 out of the 12 anesthesiologists of the state-run Veterans Regional Hospital (VRH) have joined the exodus of medical professionals abroad.

Dr. Antonio Parong, provincial health team leader of the Department of Health, said the two remaining VRH anesthesiologists can hardly attend to all emergency surgeries, especially when more than two operations take place at the same time.

Dean Luz Bartolome of the PLT College of Nursing said the situation is alarming because the two anesthesiologists also attend to cases at the Nueva Vizcaya Provincial Hospital in Bambang town and the newly established PLT Hospital in Solano town.

"I cannot imagine how they will be able to assist four surgeries simultaneously," she said.

Parong said the government should look into this matter with extreme urgency.

In most cases, Parong said head surgeons are overburdened and overworked, affecting their efficiency, due to the absence of competent anesthesiologists, especially during major surgeries.

Anesthesiologists play a "critical role" in evaluating the patient "prior, during and after the surgical operation."

"They are part and parcel of surgical operations. Without them, lives can be unnecessarily wasted or lost," he said.

As a tertiary hospital, the VRH must have adequate manpower and equipment. But Parong lamented that the VRH, one of the biggest state-run hospitals in Cagayan Valley, has only two anesthesiologists at present.

He said this dire situation has been aggravated by other medical practitioners from the hospital, especially doctors and nurses, joining the exodus overseas.