PGH to resume surgical procedures

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine General Hospital (PGH) is looking to resume conducting surgical procedures for indigent patients next week after a fire broke out at the state-owned facility on Sunday.

Dr. Jonas del Rosario, spokesman for the PGH, said they would try to find ways to resume normal operations even though the fire damaged the hospital’s surgical equipment.

“We do about 120 surgical procedures a day prior to the fire. The operating rooms were not destroyed. Ang problema ‘yung surgical instruments and sterilizing machines kasi ‘yun ang mga nasira sa sunog,”  Del Rosario said in an interview with “The Chiefs” on One News/TV5 on Monday night.

“We can probably ask the help of other hospitals to sterilize the equipment. Hopefully, by next week we are able to resume surgical procedures,” he added.

The PGH yesterday resumed accepting COVID-19 cases, Del Rosario said.

“We are down to 153 patients out of the 250 COVID beds. We have about 60 percent occupancy, walang waitlist so if you have COVID you can readily walk in to the hospital,” Del Rosario said.

He said the proposal to renovate the entire PGH is not feasible because they cannot shut down the hospital.

Del Rosario said there is a plan to put up an extension of the PGH at UP Diliman in the next few years.