PGH renovation limits hospital's capacity to serve patients

Philippine General Hospital (PGH) has never refused any patient, but the estimated P500-milllion renovation works the state-owned facility is undergoing has rendered the hospital limited in terms of capacity to accept more patients.

PGH officials are now urging the public to consider going to other hospitals as its emergency room and intensive care unit (ICU) are undergoing renovation and operating at reduced capacities. 

Some wards, conference rooms, and the atrium are also under renovation as part of what PGH spokesman Jubert Benedicto estimated on Thursday as a P500-million project.

“Humihingi po kami ng pang-unawa at paumanhin at sa ngayon po talaga may apela din kami, dahil po sa kasalukuyang sitwasyon, na kung maaari ay sumangguni muna sa ibang ospital, kung saka-sakali doon sa mga areas na pinanggagalingan ng mga pasyente,” PGH spokesman Jubert Benedicto told reporters Thursday.

“Wala po kaming hindi tinitingnan na pasyente sa PGH, so kahit po ganun ang situation, tinitignan pa rin po namin sila. Pina-prioritize lang po namin siyempre yung pinaka-emergent at urgent na case na dumarating sa emergency room,” he added.

The temporary emergency room—formerly the trauma ward—only has 30 beds, but has recently seen some 170 patients at the same time, the spokesman said.

When reporters were allowed into the room Thursday morning, there were 110 patients—many of them on stretchers out in the hallway.

Combined with medical staff and the patients’ companions, there could be as many as 400 people in the area, said emergency room head Orlando Ocampo.

A number of patients remain in the makeshift emergency room despite the need to be confined in the ICU because the ICU is also under renovated, Ocampo noted.

The ICU’s present capacity is 8 to 9 patients from the original 12 to 14, Benedicto said. It will be abel to accommodate up to 32 patients post-renovation.

Benedicto said the renovated emergency room will have a capacity of 80.

The renovations, which started in June 2018, are expected to be completed in February 2020, but even then, the PGH cannot promise the area will not be congested, Ocampo said.

“Even with the renovated ER, I think we’re gonna have sort of the same problem, kasi they’ll still come, and the ward won’t be bigger,” he said.

That is why the PGH is encouraging patients to consider other going to other hospitals even after the renovations are completed because the many patients coming to the PGH. —VDS, GMA News