As of today Mar. 25, five private hospitals in Metro Manila are asking the public to look for other medical centers because they have already exceeded the capacity to care for COVID-19 cases.
The overburdened private hospitals are St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC) and De Los Santos Medical Center, both in Quezon City; SLMC Global City in Taguig City; The Medical City (TMC) in Pasig City; and Makati Medical Center (MMC) in Makati City.
While the Philippine Heart Center (PHC) in Quezon City and San Juan Medical Center, Cardinal Santos Medical Center and St. Martin de Porres Charity Hospitals in San Juan City are also appealing to the masses as they fear reaching full-capacity in just a number of days ultimately raising worries about their high-risk patients.
St. Luke’s Medical Center and St. Luke’s Medical Center Global City Taguig
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The two hospitals combined are currently taking care of 48 confirmed cases and 139 patients under investigation (PUIs).
This is besides the fact that 592 of their health workers are on quarantine due to exposure to possible COVID-19 positive cases.
In total, SLMC hospitals have 1,146 rooms although their management says that “Admitting more COVID-19 patients will seriously impact our ability to deliver the critical level of care and attention patients need at this time. We are also treating non-COVID-19 patients on other floors in which their health conditions cannot be compromised.”
The Medical City Pasig
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The Medical City Pasig, an 800-bed hospital in Pasig made the same appeal as they are currently taking care of 18 COVID-19 patients and 85 PUIs, while 11 other patients are in its emergency department with five in critical condition.
As of Tuesday Mar. 24, 20 more positive cases have been admitted as TMC president and CEO Eugenio Jose Ramos takes into consideration the daily risk of health workers who are becoming overworked. In a statement from Inquirer he says: “Our frontline health care workforce is already overstretched as 137 of them are in quarantine. Unless we are able to move the new patients to other hospitals, our health care delivery system is going to break down.”
Makati Medical City
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MMC also declared that it “has reached its threshold in its capacity to respond to more COVID-19 cases.”
In a statement signed by MMC medical director Dr. Saturnino Javier, he says that the hospital had so far “attended to more than 700 patients suspected to have COVID-19 since the outbreak of this infection” in the country.
Furthermore, on top of the hospital’s 70 COVID-19 positive in-patients, those who are still awaiting tests include some of its own doctors and other health workers. As such, Javier suggests that they can “no longer extend the same degree of care and attention for any additional admission.”
De Los Santos Medical Center
De Los Santos Medical Center, a 150-bed private hospital in E. Rodriguez Quezon City, also released a statement saying its intensive care unit (ICU) and designated isolation areas were at full capacity and that its supply of personal protective equipment (PPE’s) for its staff and other medical supplies would not be enough should it admit more PUIs.
The hospital nonetheless opens its lines for telephone consultation to people who might be feeling symptoms of COVID-19.
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Given all of this, Makati Medical Center encourages the public to take initiative “in seeking out other hospitals,” while a reminder from St. Luke’s Medical Centers is also for the public to help them “flatten the curve” by staying home and practicing protective measures by the World Health Organization (WHO) which will ultimately protect ourselves as well as our loved ones.
Header photo courtesy of Inquirer.net
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Writer: JOY THERESE GOMEZ
