PGH, St. Luke's can no longer readily accept severe COVID-19 cases due to full capacity

Two of the biggest hospitals in Metro Manila can no longer readily accept severe cases of COVID-19 needing emergency care as they are already reaching their full capacity, their officials said on Sunday.

In separate interviews with Dobol B TV, officials from the UP-Philippine General Hospital (PGH) and St. Luke's Medical Center (SLMC) reported that most of their beds are already filled amid the surge of COVID-19 patients being brought to their care.

For instance, UP-PGH spokesperson Dr. Jonas Del Rosario said that their intensive care unit (ICU) facilities are also full.

They even had to convert other rooms into ICU rooms as many of the COVID-19 cases being brought to the hospital are severe to critical.

"'Yun ang isa naming problema. Napakahirap kami ngayong mag-admit ng severe or critically ill na kailangan ay ICU setting. Kaya 'yung iba na gustong magpalipat sa PGH ay hindi pa namin matanggap," he said.

[That's one of our problems now. It's difficult for us to admit severe or critically ill patients that need an ICU setting. Others who want to be transferred to the PGH cannot be accommodated for now.]

Del Rosario said that currently, they have 170 COVID-19 patients admitted at UP-PGH. A total of 200 beds are being used for COVID-19 patients at the moment, but he said they may expand it to 230 depending on the new cases that would be brought to the hospital.

The insufficiency of hospital beds was also due to the number of non-COVID patients admitted to UP-PGH at the moment, Del Rosario said.

"There was a time, noong umpisa last year, primarily nag-concentrate kami sa COVID. Tapos nu'ng bumaba na 'yung COVID, in-allow na namin makabalik 'yung non-COVID patients namin sa PGH. So marami kami ngayong non-COVID patients na nasa ospital na ino-occupy nila 'yung aming mga wards," he said.

[There was a time last year that we concentrated only on COVID cases. When the number of cases went down, we started to allow non-COVID patients to the PGH. So we have many non-COVID patients now who occupy our wards.]

Del Rosario said UP-PGH cannot simply ask non-COVID patients to go home, so he advised the public to also try non-COVID referral hospitals if they are needing medical care.

"Ang tatanggapin lang naming non-COVID patients ay 'yun talagang emergency, 'yung life- and limb-threatening conditions," he said.

[We will only accept non-COVID patients who have life- and limb-threatening conditions.]

The situation is the same at SLMC, according to its chief medical officer Dr. Benjamin Campomanes.

Some of the beds in the hospital, he said, are also occupied by non-COVID patients, so they are having a hard time to admit COVID-19 patients. 

Campomanes also urged patients to try other hospitals, even those run by the government, so they can be attended to immediately. Some patients who insist on being admitted to SLMC had to wait for three to five days to get a room in the said hospital.

"Ang pakiusap namin sa public is actually maraming magagandang ospital din naman, even public hospitals. May mga private rooms din sila and I've looked at it, magaganda at mahuhusay, comparable sa mga private hospitals 'yung mga rooms nila," he said.

[Our plea to the public is to try other good hospitals, even the public ones. They have private rooms as well and they are excellent, comparable to the ones in private hospitals.]

Like in UP-PGH, Campomanes said facilities in SLMC are already reaching full capacity.

In SLMC Global City, for instance, he said all 109 beds are "101% occupied," as some families opt to share a room even beyond its bed capacity.

Meanwhile, in SLMC Quezon City, at least 17 individuals are waiting to be admitted in the emergency room. 

For now, Campomanes said they have placed ICU beds in their emergency room so that patients needing intensive care can be attended to already.

The OCTA Research group projected Saturday that hospitals in the National Capital Region will reach full capacity in the first week of April as the country’s COVID-19 reproduction number neared two amid surging cases.

The group said the reproduction number in NCR was currently around 1.95, which indicated that one positive individual can infect nearly two people.

“[O]ur modeling suggests that with the current reproduction number hovering around 1.9, we expect both total bed and ICU capacity to reach full 100% occupancy by the first week of April," it said.

On Saturday, the Philippines reported 7,999 new cases of COVID-19, the highest daily count recorded since the pandemic began. 

The total number of COVID-19 cases in the country as of Saturday was total to 656,056. Of this number, 562,484 recovered, 80,642 are active, and 12,930 died. —KG, GMA News