MANILA, Philippines — The Medical City in Pasig City would temporarily not accept coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients, the hospital’s President and Chief Operating Officer said Wednesday.
“Dumating na talaga sa punto na hindi na talaga namin kakayanin tumanggap pa ng mga pasyente (It came to a point where we couldn’t accommodate more patients),” Dr Eugene Ramos, the hospital’s president and chief operating officer, said in an interview on radio station DZMM.
“Kasi ‘yung mga pasyente na dinadala sa Medical City emergency room, pag dumadating, unstable na,” Ramos explained. “So there was the other day, there were already na 12 na unstable na naka-tubo na, mistulang [intensive care unit] ICU na yung emergency room namin.”
(Because some patients who are brought to the Medical City emergency room, when they arrive, they are already unstable. There was the other day, 12 of them were already unstable and were intubated. It’s as if our emergency room became an intensive care unit.)
But as the hospital would not be accommodating COVID-19 patients, Ramos assured that it has talked with other hospitals to make sure they would be taken in.
“So habang maaga pa, inform na lang namin mga tao na pwede, dumirecho na sila sa ibang hospital kasi talagang di na namin kakayanin,” Ramos said
(So while it’s still early, we are already informing that if it’s possible, they could go straight to other hospitals because we don’t have the capacity to accommodate them.)
“Mga dalawang araw pa siguro na kakayanin namin at mago-open kami ulit ng emergency room namin (Maybe another two days, we will open our doors for the emergency room),” he added.
As of 4 p.m. Thursday, data from the hospital showed that they have 25 COVID-19 patients admitted to their hospital. Meanwhile, five patients are in the ICU, while 23 have died in The Medical City.
The hospital added that 60 COVID-19 patients were discharged from The Medical City.
The Department of Health on Thursday reported that the Philippines has 3,870 confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 182 succumbed to the disease while 96 managed to recover.