Hospitals asked to hike COVID beds, but PHAPi notes shortage of nurses

MANILA, Philippines — Increasing hospital capacity is simply “not doable” without having the corresponding number of healthy employees to treat people infected with COVID-19, according to health experts.

The Department of Health (DOH) has ordered public and private hospitals anew to increase their COVID bed allocation to 50 and 30 percent, respectively, as cases continue to rise in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

But to do that, a private hospital would need more warm bodies — equivalent to half of its current manpower pool — to work the additional beds, according to the Private Hospital Association of the Philippines Inc. (PHAPi).

“It may not be doable because we may not have the manpower [to] compliment that increase,” Dr. Jose de Grano, president of PHAPi, said on Monday.

“We are trying to comply the best way we can. But there is no more supply [of nurses]. Where do we get the additional manpower?” asked De Grano.

The usual nurse-patient ratio is 1:8, but critical cases would need one nurse for every two COVID patients.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Monday said the agency was studying ways to augment hospital staffs.

Nurses from provinces eyed

She said one of the measures done back in July and August 2020 was to pull nurses out of provinces that were at a lower risk of virus infection and transfer them to hospitals in Metro Manila.

De Grano said government hospitals were more capable of expanding their capacity.

Several private hospitals, De Grano added, had already “downsized,” if not completely stopped, their operation, primarily due to some P6 billion unpaid bills by Philippine Health Insurance Corp. in December 2020.

Dr. Michael Tee, professor at the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital, said independent OCTA Research projected hospitals could reach capacity by April, when 11 percent of the new COVID cases would require hospitalization.

The Medical City in Pasig City announced on Monday that both its emergency rooms and intensive care units for COVID-19 patients have reached capacity.

But the hospital said it would continue to accommodate non-COVID-19 patients in a separate ward.