Metro Manila private hospitals call for govt help as COVID-19 cases surge

MANILA, Philippines — A group of private hospitals in Metro Manila has issued an urgent call to the government for help as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases continue to rise.

At least 11 private hospitals are asking the national government to “centralize all efforts and resources into one or two COVID-19 hospitals, adequately equipped and invested upon by. the government.”

“We are aware there is a plan to do this; we are urgently appealing for the DOH (Department of Health) to mobilize this plan, challenging as it may be, but which the private hospitals are willing and ready to facilitate,” the group said in a statement signed by the hospitals’ medical directors on Thursday.

The execution of this plan, they said, “will allow for concentration of resources, speed of patient processing and efficiency in protocol execution, rendering better chances for infection containment.”

The group of hospitals includes Adventist Medical Center, Asian Hospital Medical Center, Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Fatima University Medical Center, Makati Medical Center, Manila Doctors Hospital. Medical Center Manila, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, St. Luke’s Medical Center, and University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Medical Center.

The hospitals said that there is already an “alarming number” of its medical staff and employees going through a 14-day mandatory quarantine after being exposed to COVID-19 patients, as persons under investigation “continue to flock” to their emergency rooms every day.

“The panic is escalating, mortality is increasing, our supplies of personal protective equipment are running short, our frontline staff are increasingly getting depleted as more of them are quarantined or physically and emotionally exhausted, and a number of our medical colleagues are already hooked to respirators fighting for their lives in various ICUs,” the group said.

“Even our ICUs are getting full. Soon we will have a shortage of respirators. We have every reason to be scared; we are, indeed, very scared because we feel that we are on our own to face our countrymen in dire need of help,” they added.

If there are designated COVID-19 hospitals in place, the other institutions can then focus on other patients who are suffering other ailments but are also at risk, the group said.

“They are the ones we need to equally protect and secure from the virus so that they and their families can also be assured of appropriate treatment detached from any threat of COVID-19 infection aggravating their condition,” they said.

The group called on the DOH to move swiftly as the number of people infected continues to grow. “We have to act fast, and act now. There is no time for indecision.”

“If we do not put our act together, the prospect of the healthcare delivery systems crashing down is imminent and real. It is already happening,” they said.

As of Thursday, the Philippines has 217 confirmed cases of COVID-19 — with 17 dead and eight patients recovered.

/MUF