Senators have urged the Department of Health (DOH) to clarify its data on the occupancy of hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a series of tweets on Thursday, Sen. Joel Villanueva flagged as "misleading" the DOH's data on the bed capacity of health facilities nationwide amid the health emergency.
He posted an undated graph captured from the agency's website, showing that 780 hospitals are under the "safe" level, or those that are less than 30 percent occupied; 284 facilities under the "warning" level, or were 30 percent to 70 percent occupied; and 237 hospitals under the "danger" level, or more than 70 percent occupied.
"We urge the DOH to disaggregate the infographic on occupancy rate of health facilities. This info is misleading. Makes us think that the majority of our hospitals are actually in the safe zone," Villanueva said in his Twitter post.
The senator also noted that the DOH graph does not specify the location of the hospitals with available bed capacity.
"What is the value of these vacant hospitals to me if I am in Bulacan and these hospitals are in Tawi-tawi?" he raised.
He also recalled statements from major hospitals in the National Capital Region (NCR) declaring that they have reached their full capacity and can no longer accommodate COVID-19 patients. The NCR is still the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the Philippines for having the most number of cases among regions.
"What is the real state of occupancy of hospitals in the NCR? What is the recommended response of IATF (Interagency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases) on this?" he asked.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said he "totally agrees" with Villanueva and pointed out that the DOH figures do not represent the situation on the ground.
"We don't see that on the ground. Most hospitals are already turning away COVID patients," Gatchalian said.
Gatchalian had earlier said that the DOH "needs to review and validate their numbers because their data shows otherwise."
The DOH website said hospital occupancy rate was 52.8 percent as of July 22, or 10,771 out of the total 20,418 allocated COVID-19 beds in the country.
Of the 1,934 facilities nationwide, 789 facilities were under the safe zone, 273 were under the warning zone, and 245 under the danger zone.
In the NCR, the occupancy rate was at 76.4 percent also as of July 22, with 72 out of 177 hospitals already under the danger zone.
As of July 23, the Philippines recorded 74,390 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 1,871 deaths, and 24,383 recoveries.