ROOMS FULL In this photo taken on March 15, St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City informs
patients that it cannot accommodate COVID-19 patients as the hospital has reached capacity
for such cases. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
MANILA, Philippines – As the Philippines faces a surge in COVID-19 cases, Vice President Leni Robredo on Saturday urged the government to rush the release of real-time updates in hospital bed capacity nationwide.
“Baka naman puwede na natin itong i rush. Doable naman siya. Kawawa yung mga kababayan natin,” Robredo said in a Facebook post.
(Maybe we can rush this, it’s doable. I feel sorry for our fellowmen.)
The Vice President further expressed that it was “heartbreaking” to read about posts and text messages of people asking help to find a hospital room for a COVID-19 positive family member who is already struggling to breathe.
“It is even worse to receive messages informing us that the patient died while looking for available hospitals,” she added.
Robredo said that while the Once Hospital Command— the government’s centralized COVID-19 referral center—is helpful, the system, however, is “so overwhelmed already.”
“The hotlines are difficult to access and in emergency situations, every minute, every second counts,” she said.
The Vice President also shared that she proposed a site where people can visit to check which hospitals can still accommodate them and how long the waiting line, but was told there was already an existing one.
“I checked the site and there are no real-time updates and people won’t have an idea which hospitals still have vacancies,” she said.
Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega earlier said that the One Hospital Command Center is currently facing “a lot of strain” due to the surge of COVID-19 cases in the country, with nearly 400 calls being received daily.
As of April 3, the Philippines recorded 12,576 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the country’s total to 784,403 of which 165,715 are active cases.