PGH temporarily stops walk-in admissions at outpatient department

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine General Hospital (PGH) has temporarily stopped accepting walk-ins for its outpatient department amid the increase in the number of COVID-19 patients at the hospital and the detection of coronavirus among its personnel, its spokesperson said Monday.

PGH spokesperson Dr. Jonas del Rosario said there are now 102 COVID-19 patients at the hospital, as well as 15 healthcare workers inflicted with COVID-19 on the first days of March, including four members of the hospital’s anesthesia department. He added that the South African variant of COVID-19 was also detected among one of the 30 samples sent by the hospital for genome sequencing.

He further said that some 80 healthcare workers at the PGH were ordered to undergo quarantine after exposure to COVID-19 patients.

“Dahil nga sa tumataas ang bilang ng admissions tapos marami-raming healthcare workers namin ang nagkasakit, at may banta na itong variants na ito na mabilis kumalat, minabuti muna namin na huwag muna payagan ‘yung walk-ins sa PGH,” del Rosario told ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo when asked to confirm if the PGH has temporarily stopped accepting patients for its outpatient department.

(Because of the increase in admissions, the healthcare workers becoming sick, and the threat of the more transmissible variants, we have opted to not allow walk-ins at the PGH.)

“Ang ginagawa po namin ngayon kailangan muna nila magpa-schedule online at meron pong tinatawag na telemedicine. Makikipag-usap muna po sila sa mga doktor bago po sila pumunta sa PGH para medyo mabawasan ‘yung traffic at masiguro namin na ang mga pupunta doon ay walang posible na COVID,” he added.

(They should first schedule an appointment online. We have what we call telemedicine wherein they will first talk to doctors before going to the PGH. We do this so that we can decrease the traffic of patients coming in and to ensure that none of them have COVID.)

Del Rosario said that those who do not have access to the internet may contact the PGH through its 155-200 hotline.

Meanwhile, Del Rosario noted that the 102 COVID-19 patients at the hospital were higher than the 60 to 70 total admissions in the previous two weeks. He said around 10 additional COVID-19 patients were being admitted at the PGH daily in the last five days.

According to Del Rosario, COVID-19 vaccines from AstraZeneca have been delivered to the PGH early Monday morning for the continuation of vaccination for its frontliners.

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JE