PGH suspends outpatient services

As COVID-19 cases surge

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine General Hospital has reached a new peak in COVID-19 cases at 260 patients, prompting the PGH management to suspend its non-COVID outpatient services.

The number of virus cases exceeded its 250-bed capacity as a COVID-19 referral center, PGH spokesman Dr. Jonas del Rosario said yesterday.

Del Rosario said the hospital has increased its bed capacity to 300 beds to accommodate the soaring number of patients infected with the virus.

“We reached a record high of 262 cases in the last 18 months of being a COVID-19 referral center. Our previous record was 241. We can probably reach the 300 mark, but hopefully not,” Del Rosario said in an interview on dzMM.

He said only emergency services such as attending to trauma incidents and heart attacks would be accepted.

The Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences as well as the Cancer Institute will remain open.

The PGH is preparing for a worst case scenario amid a surge in COVID-19 cases attributed to the more transmissible Delta variant, according to Del Rosario.

“We need to adjust and recalibrate. It is important to redistribute our nurses,” he said.

The 40-bed intensive care unit of the PGH is full with COVID-19 patients, Del Rosario said. The pediatric ward needs to increase its capacity to 12 beds as more children are getting infected with the virus.

The PGH recorded an average of three to five deaths due to COVID-19 in the past week. The mortality rate involving minors was low at only six percent, with more children recovering from the disease, Del Rosario added.