MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine General Hospital (PGH) and St. Luke’s Hospital in Taguig and Quezon City on Monday said their emergency room (ER) and intensive care unit (ICU) wards have reached full occupancy amid the surge of COVID-19 cases in the Metro.
PGH spokesperson Dr. Jonas del Rosario, in an interview over ABS-CBN’s TeleRadyo, reported an increase in COVID-19 patients admitted to the hospital.
“Eto po dumadami po ang aming mga pasyente, by the day po tumataas ang aming bilang. Ngayon po ang latest ay 134 pero po may mga naka schedule pa pong ia-admit,” he said.
(Our patients are increasing by the day. Our latest data showed that there are 134 patients and there are more who are scheduled to be admitted.)
“Ito po ang pinaka mataas naming bilang for the last four months po kasi bumaba na kami noon nasa 60 to 70 na lang kami per day na naka-admit, eh ngayon parang dumoble na,” he added.
(This is our highest case number for the last four months. It has decreased before, we were only at 60 to 70 patients per day but now it has doubled.)
He also detailed that while they try to expand the ER to accept more patients, their ICU has already reached its full capacity.
“Sa 134 [COVID-19] patients, meron po kaming 180 beds. So parang mga 75 percent po kami in terms of occupancy. May bakante pa po kasi nag expand po kami kasi kung mags-stick kami sa 140 [beds] eh mapupuno na po,” said Del Rosario.
(We have 180 beds for our 139 patients. We are at least at 75 percent in terms of occupancy. There are still vacant beds since we expanded.)
“Pero ‘yung ICU po, sinabihan ako na sa ngayon po ay puno na,” he added.
(I was told that our ICU is currently full.)
According to Del Rosario, the hospitals will only be able to accommodate non-COVID-19 patients who are in an urgent case while the non-COVID-19 patients who are not considered an emergency will be transferred to another hospital.
“‘Pag may non-COVID po na walk-in at ‘di naman emergency, ‘di naman urgent, eh nililipat po namin sa ibang ospital at talagang ‘di [namin] ma-admit. Pero ‘pag emergency po ay talagang ia-admit namin ise-stabilize sa ER at ipapasok po namin sa hospital,” the doctor explained.
(If there is a walk-in non-COVID patient who is not an emergency case, we will transfer the patient to another hospital since we cannot admit him/her. But if it’s an emergency, we will admit and stabilize the patient in the ER.)
Meanwhile, other hospitals are asked to coordinate with PGH first before bringing in their COVID-19 referrals.
“‘Yung mga COVID [patients] naman po, kagaya ng dati dahil kami ay referral center, usually naman kino-coordinate ng mga ospital na ang ire-refer sa amin bago po nila dalhin sa PGH para sigurado na pagdating doon ay halos diretso na sa room, di na po masyado mag iistambay sa ER,” said Del Rosario.
(Since we are a referral center, other hospitals coordinate with us before bringing in their COVID patients. This is to ensure that the patients will be directly admitted to their room.)
Del Rosario pleaded with other hospitals to help them with non-COVID-19 patients so they could accept more COVID-19 referrals in their facilities.
“Humihingi rin po kami ng tulong para mailipat sa ibang ospital para naman po ma-admit po natin yung mga COVID referrals nila. Problema po yun dahil’ yung ibag hospital puno rin sila ‘yung ibang mga kaso di rin naman nila kaya gawin,” he said.
(We are asking for help from other hospitals with non-COVID patients so we can admit their COVID referrals. It is a problem since other hospitals are already full while some cannot take some cases that we have.)
Meanwhile, St. Luke’s Hospital in Taguig and Quezon City are also in turmoil as more patients come in and wait for their turn to be transferred to their now fully occupied ERs.
“Kahapon ng hapon, we already posted sa mga ER namin na we are completely full. In fact, ngayon here in Global City as of the moment 33 ang nag hihintay sa ER for a COVID room. Sa Quezon City, 18 ang nasa ER namin ngayon na naghihintay ng kwarto,” said Dr. Benjo Campomanes, Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of St. Luke’s Hospital, in an interview over DZMM on Monday.
(Yesterday afternoon, we already posted in our ERs that we are completely full. In fact, here in Global City, as of the moment, 33 patients are waiting in the ER for a COVID room. In Quezon City, 18 are still waiting.)
“As of now walang bakante mag hihintay ng masi-didischarge. Di naman namin masasabi agad kung ma-e-empty so talagang negative na kami,” he added.
(As of now, we do not have a vacancy so we will wait until we discharge a patient. We cannot really say if the ER will be emptied so we are really negative.)
Campomanes told patients to call before going to their hospitals.
“Ang advice namin is tumawag muna sila. Okay lang naman ia-accomodate din naman namin, kaya lang mag hihintay sila,” he said.
(We advise them to call first before going to the hospital. We will accommodate them but they will have to wait.)
“Minsan mga isang linggo sila sa ER bago makakuha ng kwarto. Eh wala eh, di rin naman ma-transfer sa ibang ospital kaya mag titiis sila doon sa ER,” he added.
(There are times when they will wait for one week before they get a room. We cannot really transfer them to other hospitals so they have to wait in the ER.)
According to him, the hospital has a separate ER for patients who have symptoms of COVID-19 and those who have tested negative or have no COVIID-19 related symptoms.
“‘Pag nag-walk-in ka tapos may symptoms ka na ng COVID, diretso ka na sa COVID ER. ‘Pag wala kang symptom ng COVID, doon ka sa non-COVID ER ang tawag namin,” he explained.
(If you are a walk-in patient who has symptoms of COVID-19, you will be directed to our COVID ER. If you do not have any COVID-related symptoms, you will go to our non-COVID ER.)
The hospital has also extended its ICU ward from 18 beds to 20 beds.
“Kasi kailangan malaman ng iba na yung ibang nasa ward pwedeng mag-deteriorate and go to ICU kaya nagrereserba rin kami. Pag nag-crash ‘yung naka-admit samin at wala kaming pag lalagyan sa ICU, problema rin,” said Campomanes.
(Other people need to know that some patients in our wards might deteriorate and be transferred to our ICU; that’s why we always reserve. It would be a problem if one of our admitted patients crashed and there is no available space in the ICU.)
As of Sunday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported a total of 4,899 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the Philippines’ total to 621,498.
Of the sum, 48,157 are active cases while 560,512 are total recoveries. Around 12,829 succumbed to the disease.