The National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) hospital already reached the full capacity of its wards and even tents, forcing patients to lie on the floor at the driveway just to get treatment.
Raffy Tima reported on “24 Oras” that patients and their companions were already lying on cartons with wheelchairs and oxygen tanks nearby.
According to Dr. Rose Marie Rosete-Liquete, executive director of NKTI, said even the hospital tents already reached their full capacity.
She added the emergency rooms were also overwhelmed since COVID-19 cases continued to increase.
“Even our emergency room, we partially closed it because we have to put some negative pressurization at the exhaust,” Liquete said in an interview with Super Radyo DZBB.
“That is one of the reasons why until now there are still many patients positive for the virus instead of negative, compared to last year. So they cannot go inside. They still wait for swab testing,” she added.
“These patients know that we are already at full capacity, this means they are waiting,” Liquete said.
NKTI hospital’s wards, tents reach full capacity
The doctor said patients chose to wait for medical treatment at NKTI for fear that other hospitals might not accept them.
“Mostly are in wheelchairs. We can’t place a cot bed. We have many watchers but of course some Filipinos have more than one watcher. And these watchers take up more space,” Liquete said.
“Even if they know we are already full, they are still waiting because hospitals might refuse them,” she added.
The NKTI chief said also said three of their COVID-19 wards were closed down because many nurses have resigned while were under quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19.
As a response, Health Chief Francisco Duque III said the Philippine Red Cross sent 20 to 25 additional tents to add more NKTI facilities and give more comfortable waiting room for patients.
The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines reached over 1 million this Monday.
This is after the Department of Health (DOH) recorded 8,929 additional cases for a total of 1,006,428.
Visit our Facebook page for more news updates.