Calls to One Hospital Command steady at 200 to 300 daily — official

The average number of calls received daily by the One Hospital Command Center remained unchanged over the past week, an official said Friday. 

OHCC medical officer Dr. Marylane Padlan said the seven-day average stood at 200 to 300 calls. 

"Noong nakaraang linggo po, nag-maintain po tayo with around 200 to 300 calls pa din daily," she said at the Laging Handa briefing. 

(Last week, we still received around 200 to 300 calls daily. )

Padlan said most of the calls came from the National Capital Region (NCR).

“Karamihan pa rin po ng mga nari-receive naming call ay more of hospital request pa rin rather than an isolation request. Halos walang pinagbago ‘yung statistics namin. Pinaka-marami pa rin naming nari-receive or iyong maraming tumatawag, maraming nagri-request po humihingi ng tulong sa amin is from NCR pa rin po” she said.

(We mostly receive hospital requests rather than isolation requests. Our statistics barely changed. A lot of the requests came from NCR.)

Padlan said they also received calls from residents of Regions III and IV-A.

“Pero dahil nga po may mga regional OHCC na tayo, onti-onti na rin naman ‘yung, for example, ‘yung mga ibang regions. Pag may tumatawag po sa amin na galing ibang region, nire-refer na lang din po namin,” she said.

(But because there are now regional OHCCs, there are fewer calls from the regions. If there is someone calling from another region, we will just refer them.)

In August, Padlan said their calls increased by 200% to 400-500 a day.

Meanwhile, she said they also felt the decrease in hospital admissions.

“Kumpara noong peak po talaga, noong surge lalo na po noong kalagitnaan noong August and iyong katapusan noong August na nagkakaroon ng pahirapan. Ngayon po, mas may napapasok po kami ngayon sa mga ospital,” she said.

(Compared to during the surge, especially in mid-August and by the end of August, we can now admit patients to hospitals easier.)

“Pero hindi po ibig sabihin walang difficulty. May paghihirap pa rin pong makapasok dahil nga po sa ER pa rin po lagi ang pasok ng mga pasyente namin,” she added.  

(But that doesn’t mean there’s no difficulty. We have encountered difficulties in entering emergency rooms because that’s where our patients usually go.)

Padlan said the situation at the temporary treatment and monitoring facilities (TTMFs) had also improved.

“Naramdaman din po namin ito, iyong epekto ng bahagyang pagbaba ng mga cases natin,” she said.

“Mas nakakabilis na po tayong maka-refer sa mga isolation facility and mas mabilis na po iyong pag-transfer natin sa mga patients from community to TTMF compared noong surges na may konting hintayan pa because of lack of transportation and vacancy.”

(We also felt the effect of the slight decrease in our cases. We can refer patients to isolation facilities easier and we can transfer patients from the community faster.  In the previous surge, we had to wait because of lack of transportation and there was no vacancy.) — VBL, GMA News