(SPOT.ph) A year after the first case of COVID-19 was reported in the Philippines, the healthcare system once again reached critical levels in the National Capital Region and nearby provinces. Most hospitals in Metro Manila have been at nearly full capacity since March due to a new surge of infections, leading to stricter quarantine measures. In an effort to somehow alleviate this situation, the Office of the Vice President on April 7 launched Bayanihan E-Konsulta—a free teleconsultation service catering to COVID and non-COVID patients within the NCR Plus bubble and run by medical and non-medical volunteers. And now that the platform is on its 20th day of operations, Vice President Leni Robredo is calling for an additional batch of volunteers.
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"What we were initially imagining to be a simple low-tech teleconsult operations to fill in a few gaps, turned out to be the huge, complicated network that it is now. We did not realize the gap was this BIG!!!," she said in a Facebook post on April 26.
She expained that inquiries are averaging at 1,500 patients per day. So far, they have onboarded 642 doctors and 1,974 non-medical volunteers, while 87 staff members of the Office of the Vice President are involved in the day-to-day operations.
"Today, we are calling for another round of volunteers so that we can serve our patients more efficiently," Robredo said.
Urgently needed are volunteer doctors: general practioners, consultants, psychiatrists, surgeons, neurologists, allergologists, gastroenterologists, endocrinologists, cardiologists, and psychologists. On the backend, Bayanihan E-Konsulta needs non-medical volunteers for chat support, triaging and tagging, monitoring of patients by phone, call bridging agents, and tech support. Since all transactions are done via phone, volunteers can be anywhere in the country.
"There is no minimum number of hours that you can volunteer in a week. We know how busy all of you are so we will adjust to your convenience and availability," the OVP added.
To volunteer, you can sign up through Bayanihan E-Konsulta's forms for doctors and non-medical support.
To use Bayanihan E-Konsulta's services, you can follow them on Facebook. All consultations are free of charge. Plus, COVID patients get a COVID Care Kit that comes with medicine, a thermometer, oxymeter, and disinfection supplies.
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Source: Spot PH
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