• CHERYL G. CRUZ
All barangays of Bacolod City should be provided with ambulances or patient transport vehicles with stretchers that may be temporarily retained by hospitals for patient use while awaiting room availability.
The Sangguniang Panlungsod of Bacolod, in approving the resolution requesting the Bacolod City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Department to provide the barangays with ambulances with stretchers, stressed that access to timely and adequate emergency medical transport is vital to an effective local disaster risk reduction and health response system.
“There have been instances where hospitals temporarily retain stretchers brought in by barangay ambulances or patient transport vehicles due to overcrowding, or the unavailability of hospital beds, particularly while patients wait for room admission,” proponent councilor Caesar Distrito said.
Providing each Bacolod barangay with an ambulance with stretcher that may be temporarily retained by hospitals will help ensure continuity of emergency response services at the barangay level, he explained.
Distrito, chairperson of the SP committees on Government Assets and on Ways and Means, said that barangays are frontline responders during medical emergencies, disasters, and other critical incidents, necessitating the availability of properly-equipped ambulances, especially stretchers.
“The absence of available stretchers hampers the ability of barangays to promptly respond to subsequent medical emergencies, potentially endangering public health and safety,” he added. | CGC
