DOH on reports of overcapacity: Hospitals not full

CEBU, Philippines —  The Department of Health (DOH) - 7 has described as “half-truth” the information that hospitals in Cebu, as well as the Bayanihan Field Center 1, are overwhelmed with patients suffering from the coronavirus disease.

“Half-truth. Ang atong mga hospital capacity, as we have been reporting, dili gyud ta kaabot ug 30 to 40 percent. Ang atong ICU, pinakataas na pud ng 30 percent so dili gyud na tinuod nga na-overcapacity na ta,” DOH-7 Director Jaime Bernadas told The Freeman.

(That’s half-truth. Our hospital capacity, as we have been reporting, does not reach 30 to 40 percent. The highest capacity in our ICU is also 30 percent so it’s not true that we have gone beyond our capacity.)

Reports of supposed overcapacity of hospitals here have circulated online. Yesterday, Dr. Shawn Espina of Chong Hua Hospital also posted on Facebook a “census” of confirmed COVID-19 patients in several hospitals in Cebu. He said his intention is to “compare the current census and the next week's census” to see if transitioning to general community quarantine will have an effect on the number of cases.

Cebu City and Mandaue City join the rest of Central Visayas in the GCQ classification starting today, June 1, up to June 15, 2020.

Espina, in an interview with The Freeman, said the figures are based on his own census from contacts from the hospitals.

For him, Cebu City is not yet ready for GCQ as there are still some aspects that need to be addressed like tracing, testing, and treatment.

He said, though, that he understands that the economy needs to move again, thus, the transition to GCQ.

In the case of Chong Hua Hospital, Bernadas said the hospital has acknowledged that it now has 45 COVID-19 patients but the capacity declared and dedicated for COVID is a maximum of 60 patients.

“Naay nadugay-dugay na diha sa hospital tungod kay naghulat sa ilang test so ato nang gitutukan nga ma-discharge na pud nila, nga makagawas ilang pasyente,” Bernadas said.

(There are those who have been staying long there because they are waiting for their test results. We are keeping an eye on them so they can be discharged.)

“Ang atong bag-o nga guidelines karon, nag depend na sa clinical decision sa atong doctors. Kung di available ang test unya nisobra na siya sa iyang 21 days nga confinement or iyang isolation, pwede na gyud siya i-declare nga recovered,” Bernadas said.

(Our new guidelines say it will depend on the doctors’ clinical decision. If the test is not available and the patient has been confined or isolated beyond 21 days, the patient can be declared as recovered.)

He said the two laboratories here have been upgraded and are no addressing the backlogs of test results.

Bernadas said that while Chong Hua Hospital has the most number of COVID-19 patients among private hospitals here, the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center has 58 patients who are currently admitted out of its 167 confirmed cases. Other hospitals have less than 10 patients and other still, he said, only have one or two patients.

Meanwhile, the Bayanihan Field Center (BFC)-1 currently have 40 patients of its 48-bed capacity but some of these patients are not from Cebu City.

The center was built inside the old campus of Sacred Heart School in Cebu City.

Two other centers at the North Reclamation Area (NRA) and the IEC Pavilion remain unoccupied as certain concerns still need to be addressed. 

These centers isolate patients with mild cases.  JMO (FREEMAN)