MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine General Hospital’s intensive care unit for COVID-19 patients has reached full capacity, the hospital’s spokesperson said Saturday.
Dr. Jonas del Rosario, spokesperson of the PGH which is a COVID-19 referral hospital, told state-run People’s Television that some of their patients in the COVID-19 ICU were admitted for other reasons like stroke, heart attack and sepsis, but were incidentally infected with the coronavirus.
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“They come in already critically ill because of other ailments, but they have COVID. So COVID is like an incidental finding,” Del Rosario said in Filipino.
He said there are 255 COVID-19 patients currently admitted at the hospital, which brings the occupancy rate of their COVID beds at around 80%.
But Del Rosario said efforts are underway to convert non-COVID beds into beds for patients infected with the coronavirus.
“We are opening more beds,” he said. “Our non-COVID wards are being turned into COVID wards again to answer to the needs of more people who are catching COVID again.”
Beds not only problem
Having enough beds for COVID-19 patients is one problem, but having enough manpower to service these beds is another, especially since 25% of PGH’s workforce cannot come to work as they caught the virus, according to Del Rosario.
Del Rosario said a total of 40% of PGH’s workforce are affected, either after having been infected with or exposed to the coronavirus.
A workaround pushed by the Department of Health and adopted by the PGH is to shorten the quarantine period of healthcare workers.
“We are no longer requiring those who are asymptomatic and were exposed to quarantine. As long as they don’t have symptoms, they will continue to work,” Del Rosario said. “We can’t quarantine so many employees, doctors, nurses and support staff because no one would serve at the hospital.”
But eyebrows are raising at the DOH’s quarantine guidelines for healthcare workers, which were copied from the interim guidance issued by the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Our health department would rather let health workers' health and welfare be held hostage for the sake of an ‘intact’ yet insufficient workforce, instead of ensuring everyone's safety by hiring more professionals to solve mismatches amid the chronic shortage,” said Dr. Josh San Pedro, co-convenor of the Coalition for People's Right to Health.