DOH confirms overcapacity in big hospitals

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) yesterday confirmed reports of overcapacity in big hospitals in Metro Manila and other areas in the country.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, however, clarified that the surge in admissions was not due to an increase in COVID-19 cases.

“There really is an increase in the number of non-COVID patients in select hospitals here in the National Capital Region (NCR) and other big hospitals in other areas in the country,” Vergeire said in Filipino and English at a virtual briefing yesterday.

Most of the patients seeking admissions at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Manila came from outside the NCR, according to the DOH official, although she gave assurances that the health department is already addressing the issue.

“So we are trying to strengthen and improve our processes in navigating and referring patients,” Vergeire said.

She added that the surge in non-COVID admissions was because patients with chronic diseases who were unable to undergo medical check-ups during the pandemic are now opting to seek medical attention in hospitals.

The DOH is working with the National Patient Navigation and Referral Center (NPNRC) in resolving the issue, according to Vergeire.

“The NPNRC is now in charge of looking into different navigation and referral across different hospitals nationwide,” she said.

She added that the DOH already had a meeting with the NPNRC and the various hospitals involved.

The DOH official also revealed it was agreed that there would be navigation and referral of patients from different regions to big hospitals.

“Hopefully, we can decongest and fix the issue,” she said.

Elective procedures

In response to a surge in the hospitalization of non-COVID cases, the PGH has suspended its elective procedures.

Speaking at the Laging Handa public briefing yesterday, PGH spokesman Dr. Jonas del Rosario said they are only accepting “life-threatening emergencies” at this time.

“We won’t allow admission of patients who have only elective reasons to be admitted in the hospital,” Del Rosario said.

For the past two weeks, the PGH emergency room (ER) has been overflowing with non-COVID patients, according to Del Rosario.

He noted that there are now 150 patients admitted at the PGH ER, which only has a 70-bed capacity.

“Our ER is in a 200-percent capacity now, making it crowded because patients are not accepted in wards,” he added.

Most patients admitted to the PGH’s ER are suffering from pneumonia. Other admissions are due to heart and kidney problems as well as accidents.

Del Rosario emphasized that the PGH is exerting efforts to facilitate discharges and maximize the hospital’s capacity.

The hospital also added beds to accommodate patients from the ER.

It is also coordinating with other hospitals for the transfer and admission of some of their patients.

Proper coordination is necessary before patients from other hospitals can be admitted to the PGH, according to Del Rosario.

“Those public walk-ins that go straight to the PGH will most probably not be accepted immediately if the cases are not severe. That is why we advise that if the case is not severe, anyway, and it’s not really an emergency, go first to your local hospital or secondary provincial hospital,” he said.

He added that those needing hospitalization may call the DOH’s NPNRC for hospital referral.

While the PGH remains a COVID-referral center, Del Rosario said they have not observed an increase in COVID case admissions lately.

Fewer than 20 COVID cases are currently admitted at the PGH, most of which are mild and only few are severe.

Fully vaccinated

Meanwhile, the Duterte administration expects more than 70 million people to have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the time it steps down this month.

During a meeting with President Duterte and some officials last Monday, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. reported that as of June 6, about 69.49 million people or equivalent to 72.20 percent of the target population have been fully inoculated against COVID-19.

The figure covers individuals who received two pandemic shots or the Janssen single dose vaccine.

Individuals with at least one dose totaled 74.17 million or 82.41 percent of the target population of about 90 million.

“For our best-case scenario, before the end of our administration, our most honest-to-goodness assessment is for individuals with at least one dose, we will have 75 million, and then for the fully vaccinated, it’s 70,087,920,” Galvez said in Filipino.

The expected number of fully vaccinated persons by June 30 is equivalent to about 77.87 percent of the target population of 90,005,357.

Galvez, however, said the figure is higher than the original vaccination target of 70 million, which was raised to 90 million because of the spread of the more transmissible COVID-19 variants.

He added that achieving the 70 million fully vaccinated individuals would be a big contribution to the next administration.

The four-week first dose average was 321,083 doses per week while that of the second dose is just 242,606, according to the vaccine czar.

Government data showed that a total of 151 million vaccine doses have been administered.

As of June 6, about 14.35 million persons have availed themselves of booster shots.

Fully vaccinated individuals aged five to 11 years totaled 2.9 million – still far from the target population of more than 14 million.

About 9.4 million individuals aged 12 to 17 years have been fully inoculated against COVID-19, which is equivalent to 82 percent of the 11.47 million target population.

Some 6.75 million senior citizens or individuals aged 60 years and above – about 77 percent of the target population of 8.72 million – have been fully jabbed.

Duterte commended Galvez for overseeing the vaccination campaign and lauded Filipinos for following health and safety protocols.