Makati City seeks help as hospitals overflow

THE city government of Makati on Wednesday sought assistance from the national government as its hospitals and quarantine facilities reached full capacity.

Makati Cty Mayor Mar-len Abigail Binay

Makati Mayor Mar-Len Abigail Binay admitted that the city’s medical resources are stretched thin as active Covid-19 cases rose to 1,072.

“Our hospital capacity since two weeks ago is 100 percent, and we still have people on the waitlist,” she said.

“The local initiatives are not sufficient that’s why we are hoping that the national government will help us with isolation facilities, which was the arrangement last year,” she said in an ANC interview.

The mayor said the Ospital ng Makati and the Makati Medical Center were full.
She said 30 patients had been in the emergency room since last week but “they do not have a bed.”

The mayor said medical workers were also in short supply because some hospital staff have been infected.

“We have openings for nurses and doctors but no one wants to apply. We initially had a bunch of nurses that applied and they decided to quit, a lot of people are scared,” she lamented.

“Those are situations that are not particular to Makati but are currently being experienced across the country,” she added.

Hospitals in other cities in Metro Manila have the same problem.

In Manila, the city’s six district hospitals posted a 91-percent occupancy rate for Covid beds, according to the local government’s latest data on March 29.

Out of 333 beds in the city, 302 were occupied.

The city’s quarantine facilities for positive patients posted a 63-percent capacity rate, with 550 out of 870 beds occupied.

The Pasay City General Hospital also posted a 100-percent occupancy rate.

All of the hospital’s 36 Covid beds are occupied, according to the March 29 data.

The Philippines on Wednesday posted 747,288 cases, including 130,245 active cases, according to the Department of Health.