Philippine General Hospital (PGH). Image from the PGH Facebook page
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine General Hospital (PGH) has decided to stop admitting non-COVID-19 patients for the meantime as more rooms and spaces need to be set up amid rising cases.
According to a statement from PGH, the healthcare institution remains a COVID-19 referral facility, which means that more patients are coming in infected.
“Ang PGH ay nananatiling COVID-19 Referral Center, at dahil sa dumaraming bilang ng mga COVID patients, kinakailangang magbukas kami ng karagdagang lugar para sa mga ito,” PGH said in a post on its official Facebook page.
(PGH remains to be a COVID-19 Referral Center, and because of the rising COVID-19 patients, we need to open more space for them.)
“Subalit upang mapagtuunang mabuti ang pag-aalaga sa mga may COVID, kami ay pansamantalang hindi muna tatanggap ng mga pasyenteng may ibang medikal na karamdaman na wala namang COVID,” it added.
(But to focus on taking care of COVID-19 patients, we are temporarily stopping our admissions on patients with other medical conditions who do not have COVID-19.)
While PGH has not specifically mentioned what kind of services may be affected, this may include outpatient services and other elective surgeries that are not connected to COVID-19.
PGH has apologized to those who would be affected by its decision, vowing to inform the public once its services open up again.
“Humihingi kami ng inyong paumanhin at pang-unawa upang lalo pa naming matugunan ang pangangailangan ng dumaraming bilang ng ating mga kababayang may COVID,” PGH said.
(We are asking for forgiveness and for your understanding so that we can focus on the needs of the increasing number of Filipinos with COVID-19.)
“Agaran po naming kayong aabisuhan sa oras na lumipas ang bugso ng bilang ng mga kaso ng COVID upang kayo ay muling mapaglingkuran,” they assured.
(We would immediately inform you by the time that the surge in COVID-19 cases has waned, in order to serve you again.)
Early into the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) over Metro Manila, the hospital located along Taft Avenue in Manila has already sounded the alarm over the increasing number of children sick with COVID-19 inside its facility.
Last August 7, PGH admitted that its intensive care unit (ICU) facility has already reached full capacity with the surge in COVID-19 cases.
Earlier, the Department of Health said that the country again broke its record for the highest single-day jump in cases, with 14,249 new infections. This pushed the number of active cases to 98,847.
DOH said that most of the patients or 95.9 percent of active cases have still exhibited mild symptoms only, while 1.0 percent remained asymptomatic. However, COVID-19 bed capacity in the National Capital Region showed 71 percent of intensive care unit beds are being utilized while 63 percent of isolation beds are occupied.
Prior to PGH’s move, there are already private hospitals like St. Luke’s Medical Center, Capitol Medical Center, and the Medical City that have declared full capacity in terms of beds allotted to COVID-19 patients.