Lung Center hits full capacity for COVID-19 ICU beds

MANILA, Philippines — The Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon City has reached the full capacity of intensive care unit (ICU) beds dedicated to severe and critical cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), its spokesperson said on Wednesday.

“Napuno na ang aming ICU beds and ICU wings. We dedicated a lot of beds for these patients kasi ang Lung Center, referral ito for severe and critical cases kaya nirereserba namin ang resources ng hospital para dito. But the past two to three days ang bilis napuno,” Dr. Norberto Francisco said in an interview with ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.

(The ICU beds and wings have reached full capacity. We dedicated a lot of beds for these patients since the Lung Center is a referral facility for severe and critical cases, that’s why we reserved our resources for such patients. But in the last two to three days, the beds were occupied fast.)

Francisco said the hospital originally has around 250 bed capacity for all patients, but this was reduced to 169 since some rooms that previously had as many as four beds can now only accommodate a single bed so that COVID-19 patients can be properly isolated.

Of the 169 beds, 75 percent have been allotted for coronavirus patients while the rest are reserved for non-COVID-19 patients.

“Dito sa 75 percent na dinedicate namin sa COVID, punuan lahat ng ICU beds doon. Lahat ng kama for COVID-19, nasa 83 percent na ang occupancy pero ang natitirang kama, pang-moderate na lang,” Francisco explained.

(Of the 75 percent of beds that we dedicated for COVID-19, all ICU beds are occupied. All beds for COVID-19 have reached 83 percent capacity but the remaining unoccupied beds are only for moderate cases.)

Francisco said the hospital is exerting all efforts to expand its bed capacity for coronavirus patients as it nears full utilization.

He added that the hospital will also need more manpower especially with the continued increase of patients being admitted at the facility, saying that the number of patients being attended to by nurses has also moved past the ideal ratio.

“Ideally 1:2 at the most, pero siguro napipiltan pa silang mag-1:3 or 1:4. But we have no choice. We have to go on,” said the official.

(Ideally, the ratio of nurse to patient is 1:2 but maybe they are forced to make it 1:3 or 1:4. But we have no choice. We have to go on.)

On Monday, both the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City and at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City announced having reached the full capacity for intensive care unit beds allocated for COVID-19 patients.

On the same day, the Makati Medical Center also said that its critical care beds for COVID-19 patients have reached full capacity.

The Medical City likewise announced on Tuesday that it has reached full capacity of COVID-19 allotted beds.

The country has so far recorded a total of 57,545 confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease as the Department of Health logged 634 new cases of infection on Tuesday. Of the total number of confirmed cases, 20,459 have recovered while 1,603 have died.

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