PGH may transfer, refer non-COVID patients if infections rise further

UP – Philippine General Hospital (Image from the PGH website)

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine General Hospital (PGH) is eyeing the transfer or non-acceptance of non-COVID-19 patients if the demand for more hospital beds for COVID-infected patients increases.

PGH spokesperson Dr. Jonas Del Rosario said the hospital previously had about 350 beds for COVID-19 but they later converted it into non-COVID beds when coronavirus infections in the country subsided late last year.

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He added that at present, the hospital only has 100 beds for COVID-19 patients.

“Ngayon medyo hindi pa namin basta basta pwedeng ibalik ng 300 for COVID patients kasi puno kami ng non-COVID patients, so it will take a while na i-transition kung talagang malaki ang pangangailangan,” he said in an interview on ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.

(We cannot immediately return the 300 beds for COVID-19 patients because we are full of non-COVID patients, so the transition will take a while if the demand for beds increases.)

Del Rosario said that if COVID-19 cases increase in the coming days, they might be forced to allocate more beds for COVID-19 patients.

“Kapag nagbukas ka ng COVID [wards], kailangan mo ng additional manpower. The only way para ma-augment mo is magsama ka ng non-COVID so dalawa ang ginagawa namin, naghahanap kami ng hospitals na pwede muna itransfer ‘yung iba naming non-COVID patients kung pwede, or hindi na muna kami tatanggap ng non-COVID to accommodate the COVID,” he said.

(When you open a COVID ward, you need additional manpower. The only way to augment the manpower is to have non-COVID wards, so we are doing two things. We are looking for hospitals where we can transfer some of our non-COVID patients or we may not accept non-COVID patients to accommodate those with COVID-19.)

According to Del Rosario, the PGH may also just refer mild and asymptomatic patients to other hospitals or advise them to be managed at home.

The PGH is eyeing the Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital (Tala Hospital) in Caloocan City, the Sta. Ana Hospital in Manila, and quarantine facilities in local government units to help in the possible overflow of COVID-19 patients, said Del Rosario.

According to the hospital official, PGH currently houses 85 COVID-19 patients, from the previous 30 patients as of December 25.

He said the

hospital admission has been “steady” for the past six days

, for an average of six to eight patients being admitted per day.

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