DOH eyes reducing critical care utilization rate to 30% or less

The Department of Health is eyeing to reduce the critical care utilization rate of hospitals at 30% or less amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire said Tuesday. 

Vergeire said the establishment of the One Hospital Command which refers patients in need to hospitals, the threshold set for public at private hospitals to allocate 30% and 20% of their resources for COVID-19 response, respectively, and emergency hiring of health care workers should help the government address this target.

“We need to bring it down the critical care utilization to 30% or less. That is the goal. That is the objective,” Vergeire said in an ANC interview.

“That is why we need to expand the COVID-19 units of hospitals, and we were able to open additional units so far,” Vergeire added.

Based on DOH data, 59% of intensive care units in the National Capital Region—where most of the COVID-19 cases are—are occupied as of September 27.

Occupancy of isolation beds in NCR is also at 51%, while occupancy of ward beds is at 55%. 

Meanwhile, 32% of mechanical ventilators in NCR are also being used as of the same date. 

Vergeire, however, said that hospitals are nearing compliance of the threshold on allocation of resources for COVID-19 response.

“Public hospitals are mandated to increase it to as much as 50% if there is a surge, while private hospitals should increase it to 30%. Iyong public hospitals are nearing 30%, while sa private hospitals, it is about 18 to 19% from previous 11%,” Vergeire said.

“We are seeing improvement and commitment on the part of the hospitals [to comply],” Vergeire added.

Testing czar Vince Dizon, for his part, said the government will continue to scale up the quarantine facilities, especially in NCR.

“Tuloy tuloy pa rin tayong gumagawa ng quarantine facilities para ready tayo kung sakaling tumaas ang kaso, para makapag-isolate tayo nang mabilis,” Dizon said in a separate press conference.

“Nung peak natin nung August, umabot ito ng 80% occupancy kaya gumawa pa tayo ng mas marami. Kailangan lagi tayong handa at mas malaki pa ang ating capacity kesa noong nag peak,” Dizon added.

The Philippines has recorded 307,288 COVID-19 cases so far. Of this number, 252,665 recovered while 5,381 died. 

The number of active COVID-19 cases in the country is at 49,242. —KG/RSJ, GMA News