WITH its emergency room at 200 percent overcapacity, the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) will temporarily limit its ER services to “life or limb” emergency cases.
In a televised public briefing, PGH spokesman Dr. Jonas del Rosario said the hospital will temporarily suspend ER services for non-emergency cases, such as those needing “elective procedures.”
“For now, only the life or limb threatening emergency cases will be accommodated. We suspended the elective procedures so that we can focus on the emergency cases,” Del Rosario said, adding even “walk-ins will not be accommodated if they are not life or limb threatening emergency cases.”
Del Rosario said they were forced to temporarily implement the new policy because they have been operating on overcapacity for the past weeks.
Over the weekend, he said the PGH had an average of 150 ER patients despite having just a 70-bed capacity.
“We are presently at 200 percent bed capacity. The ER is very crowded with patients not being accommodated,” he said.
Del Rosario said flocking the ER are not cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) but are instead cases of pneumonia, diabetes, and heart, lungs, and kidney ailments.
“Majority of the patients at PGH are non-COVID-19 cases. There are only about 20 COVID-19 patients at the PGH right now,” he said.
Del Rosario advised non-emergency cases to go to their local health facilities to get medical attention.
He said another option is to call the National Patient Navigation and Referral Center (NPNRC), formerly known as the One Hospital Command Center, to check on the availability of PGH services.
This was echoed by the Department of Health (DOH), which tapped the NPNRC to help avoid similar situations being encountered by the PGH.
In a virtual press briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said they have met with PGH officials as well as their regional units to discuss the proper navigation of patients.
“The NPNRC has its regional centers. They’ll be working so that we can avoid crowding patients at PGH. We are trying to strengthen our process in navigating and referring patients,” Vergeire said.
She attributed the high number of patients flocking hospitals to the aftermath of the pandemic.
“Those that have chronic diseases weren’t able to get their check-up before. Now that COVID-19 cases have gone down, they are going to hospitals to continue their treatment.
That is one of the factors,” said Vergeire.
