PGH halts elective procedures as ER exceeds capacity

The Philippine General Hospital (PGH) has temporarily halted its elective procedures after its emergency room exceeded its capacity, its spokesperson said Tuesday.

In an interview on Laging Handa, Dr. Jonas del Rosario said the hospital’s emergency room is currently housing 150 patients, most of whom are non-COVID patients, exceeding its 70-bed capacity.

Due to this, Del Rosario said the hospital is only accepting patients with life-and-limb-threatening emergencies.

“Dahil po doon nanawagan po kami sa ngayon, meron po kaming tinatawag na code triage na kung talagang ‘yung mga life and limb-threatening emergencies lang po ang aming tinatanggap,” he said.

(Because of this, we have this so-called code triage where we only accept life and limb-threatening emergencies.)

“At ngayon po ay tinigil na rin po namin ‘yung mga elective procedures na naman para talagang matutukan lang itong mga emergency,” he added.

(Right now we also stopped accommodating elective procedures so we can focus on the emergencies.)

According to Del Rosario, most of the patients in the ER are suffering from pneumonia, diabetes, heart diseases, lung diseases, kidney diseases, accidents, and trauma patients.

The PGH spokesperson said they are monitoring their wards where 10 to 15 beds have been added.

“Every day po sinisigurado namin na ma-maximize yung bed capacity sa loob ng hospital para matanggap sila,” he said.

(Every day we ensure that we maximize the bed capacity inside the hospital so some patients will be accepted.)

He said the PGH is also coordinating with other hospitals regarding the possible transfer of patients.

Del Rosario advised the public to call the National Patient Navigation and Referral Center (NPNRC), previously the One Hospital Command Center, at 1555 to determine if they can be admitted to the PGH.

“Ang amin pong payo kung hindi naman talaga malubha o matindi ang emergency ay pumunta po sila doon sa kanilang local hospital po or secondary provincial hospital,” he said.

(Our advice is if your condition is not severe or if it is not a serious emergency, please go to your local hospital or secondary provincial hospital instead.)

Meanwhile, Del Rosario said the PGH is not experiencing an uptick in COVID-19 cases, adding that there are less than 20 patients in their Bayanihan Isolated Facility.

At a media briefing on Tuesday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said some of the patients were not from NCR.

“Nung tinignan natin, like for the situation in the Philippine General Hospital, ‘yung kanilang mga pumupunta na pasyente sa kanila [were] coming from outside of NCR,” Vergeire said.

(When we checked the data, like for the situation in the Philippine General Hospital, their patients were coming from outside of NCR.) 

She said that due to this, they coordinated with PGH and the regions of origin of the patients to fix the navigation and referral of patients.

Vergeire said the NPNRC has regional units that will help with the process of navigating and referring patients.

“But I would like to assure everybody government is doing and addressing this issue and as I’ve said we have already had a series of meetings with the different hospitals involved plus the NPNRC,” she said. —KBK/RSJ/VBL, GMA News