PGH emergency room at 200% capacity but not due to COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — The emergency room at the Philippine General Hospital is again overflowing with patients, with its capacity reaching up to 200%, but this is not due to COVID-19, an official said Tuesday.

PGH spokesman Jonas del Rosario said the hospital’s emergency room, which only has 70-person bed capacity, currently holds about 150 patients.

“Dahil doon, masikip ang emergency room at maraming pasyente na hindi matanggap sa wards,” he said in a public briefing.

(Because of that, the emergency room is cramped and many patients cannot be brought to wards.)

Del Rosario said that most patients are having non-COVID-19 related concerns, including pneumonia, diabetes, heart diseases, lung diseases and kidney illnesses.

There are also patients that were brought in from other hospitals.

“Halos mag-i-isang buwan na rin na dumadagsa ang pasyente sa aming ospital, lalo na itong huling dalawang linggo, talagang umaapaw ‘yung aming emergency room,” he said.

(This has been going on for almost a month where patients are flocking the hospital, especially in the last two weeks where the emergency room is overflowing.)

To manage this, Del Rosario said they are monitoring the wards to facilitate discharges so that there would be space. They are also coordinating with other hospitals to take in their other patients.

He added that PGH has also added at least 10 to 15 beds — which are not all hospital beds but only stretcher beds — to accommodate more patients.

PGH also suspended their elective procedures for now so that its staff can focus on emergency cases.

“Talagang life threatening emergency ang aming tinatanggap. Ngayon tinigil muna ‘yung elective procedures na naman para talagang matutukan itong mga emergency,” Del Rosario said.

(For now, we are only accommodating life-threatening emergencies. For now, we have suspended again our elective procedures to focus on emergency cases.)

Del Rosario advised patients intending to get admitted at PGH to go to their local hospitals or secondary provincial hospitals if their cases are not really an emergency.

“Ang aming payo, kung hindi naman talaga malubha ang emergcny ay pumunta sila sa kanilang local hospital or secondary provincial hospital,” he said.

(Our advise for them is if their case is not a dire emergency, they should instead go to their local hospital or secondary provincial hospital.)

COVID-19 cases

Del Rosario said the PGH only has less than 20 COVID-19 patients, which are mostly experiencing moderate symptoms.

“So far, hindi namin nararamdaman ‘yung nababalitang pagtaas ng bilang,” he said.

(So far, we are not experiencing the reported spike in cases.)

He surmised that some patients who have tested positive for the coronavirus only experience mild symptoms and have opted to recuperate at home.

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