Private hospitals nearing full capacity for COVID-19 cases

Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines, Inc. (PHAPI) said Tuesday the bed capacity of private hospitals for COVID-19 patients is almost full.

“Halos pare-pareho din po ngayon [ang mga hospital] kasi nga ho nag-increase ‘yung ating positive na mga pasyente parang katulad noong una,” PHAPI president Dr. Rustico Jimenez said in an interview on Unang Balita on Tuesday.

(The hospitals are at almost in the same situation since the number of positive patients increased just like before.)

St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City and in Taguig City, as well as the Makati Medical Center, earlier declared full capacity for COVID-19 intensive care unit beds.

Jimenez also said patients with mild COVID-19 symptoms prefer to be admitted in private hospitals than in government-run quarantine facilities.

“Kaya lang po karamihan ng mga pasyente ayaw naman lumipat doon dahil natatakot, dahil siyempre malayo sa bahay nila,” he said.

(The reason why most patients do not want to move there because they are afraid because of course, it is far from their house.)

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Private hospitals nearing full capacity for COVID-19 cases

“Usually mga pasyente pumupunta doon sa private hospital na malapit sa bahay nila e, para madadalaw sila o mabibigyan ng pagkain. So ang nagyayari, full packed ‘yung mga private hospitals,” Jimenez added.

(Usually, patients go to a private hospital near their house, so that they can be visited or given food. So what happens is the private hospitals are getting fully packed.)

The capacity of COVID-19 facilities in National Capital Region hospitals is in the danger zone, Jimenez said. He, however, noted that medical facilities now are more ready compared to the earlier months of the COVID-19 crisis.

The PHAPI president also raised concerns over the shortage of available health care workers as the virus already infected some of them.

“’Yun po talaga ang problema natin kasi nga po limited na talaga ang ating healthcare workers,” Jimenez said.

(That’s really our problem because we have a limited number of healthcare workers.)

He said some healthcare staff work for 12 to 16 hours just to cover the shift of their infected co-workers.