PGH COVID-19 ward operating beyond capacity, 200 patients awaiting admission

Facade of the UP – Philippine General Hospital. Image from the PGH website

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine General Hospital (PGH) said on Monday that it is now operating beyond its capacity allotted for COVID-19 patients, with 200 more infected individuals awaiting admission into one of the country’s major referral facilities.

“We have about 320 [COVID] beds allotted to PGH. We are beyond our capacity—310 patients in the hospital, about 40 patients in the emergency room waiting to get into the hospital so that’s pretty much 350 out of 320. We’re 30 patients above our threshold,” PGH spokesperson Dr. Jonas Del Rosario said in an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel.

“And then there are about 200 patients waiting in the wings wanting to be admitted, waiting to be transferred to PGH,” he added.

Portion of two wards at UP-PGH dedicated to COVID-19 patients, which were finished in just five days. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

Del Rosario admitted that it is “impossible” to admit all of these patients on the waitlist since many of the COVID-19 patients currently admitted are severe to critical cases that “require longer days to be in the hospital.”

On top of operating beyond its capacity, the PGH is also facing a staff shortage after some of the Department of Health volunteer doctors in their COVID wards opted not to renew their contracts.

“Malaking tulong po kung makakuha kami ng mga doctor. Meron po kami ngayong hiring, we’re trying to get even private practitioners to help us just to augment our manpower,” Del Rosario said.

(It will be of big help if we get more doctors. We are hiring right now, we’re even trying to get private practitioners to just help us augment our manpower.)

“It’s so hard to open up more beds, more wards if you do not have the right doctors to take care of them. A lot of our patients are severely ill so they really demand specialists, not just general doctors,” he added.

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