Hospitals run out of COVID-19 beds
Many of our health workers are affected by COVID. They will need to rest by 14 days which would limit the number of health workers as a reason to not providing the 30 percent
The Department of Health (DoH) on Tuesday affirmed that the country’s hospital capacity for COVID-19 patients is already in “danger zone” as the number of cases remains rising.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire explained that the occupancy rate in hospitals has exceeded 70 percent of the designated beds allocated for the purpose.
In response to this, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has asked the chiefs of hospitals to increase their capacity by allocating more beds for COVID-19 patients.
Initially, the DoH tasked hospitals to provide a mandatory 30 percent capacity specifically for coronavirus cases.
Vergeire, however, said not all hospitals were able to comply due to limited capacity.
“Only 20 percent are coming from government hospitals. For private hospitals there is only nine percent compliance rate for this,” she said.
Most mild and asymptomatic patients were also found to be competing with those with severe and of critical cases.
Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines INC. (PHAPi) president Dr. Rustico Jimenez, in an interview, said that one of the factors for noncompliance was to avoid a higher risk of infection among its health workers.
“Many of our health workers are affected by COVID. They will need to rest by 14 days which would limit the number of health workers as a reason to not providing the 30 percent,” he stated.
He noted that some health workers even have to be on duty for about 12 to 16 hours to cover for the work of their infected colleagues.
“That is really our problem, we have a limited number of health workers,” he said.
Most mild and asymptomatic patients were also found to be competing with those with severe and critical cases.
“But many of our patients refuse to transfer because of fear or because these facilities are farther from their homes,” he added.
On Monday, major hospitals in the National Capital Region (NCR) such as the Makati Medical Center, St. Luke’s Medical Center — both in Taguig and Quezon City — have declared that they are already at full capacity.
Also affected are the National Kidney Transplant Institute and the Medical City.
Last week, Vergeire also mentioned 11 hospitals also at maximum capacity for ICU beds which included the Veterans Memorial Medical Center, the University of Santo Tomas Hospital and the Chinese General Hospital.
The Lung Center of the Philippines, East Avenue Medical Center and the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Medical Center were likewise nearing a 100 percent capacity rate.
Vergeire said that currently, mild and asymptomatic patients are not entirely discouraged to undergo home quarantine protocols provided that proper conditions such as a separate room with their own bath are available to the infected individual.
Testing czar Vince Dizon earlier said that the government has implemented Oplan Kalinga which aims to fetch and transfer patients from homes with no proper quarantine areas to nearby treatment facilities.
As of 10 July, COVID-ligtas facilities manned
Testing czar Vince Dizon earlier said that the government has implemented Oplan Kalinga which aims to fetch and transfer patients from homes with no proper quarantine areas to nearby treatment facilities.
On Monday afternoon, the number of cases in the country had surged up to over 57,000 with the highest number of fatalities also reported on the same day.
Worldwide over 13 million individuals have contracted the coronavirus disease with the death toll now reaching by almost 600,000, the data from Johns Hopkins University showed.