The National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) said on Wednesday that it has resumed transplant activities to reduce the number of patients needing dialysis.
NKTI executive director Rose Marie Rose-Liquete said the hospital has reached full capacity for COVID-19 patients but assured it is still capable of accepting non-COVID cases.
The hospital reportedly admits 15-20 cases of COVID-19 daily and has already expanded its bed capacity for virus patients. Transplant patients are being accommodated in a separate ward.
"Nagbukas na kami ng transplant namin. Nasa ibang ward man sila, nasa old annex namin, kahit na paano maghahawaan din yan kapag nagtanggap kami ng outside sa hot zone namin (We have resumed our transplant activities. Our dialysis patients are in a different ward, in the old Annex, they will be infected if we accept patients outside of our hot zone)," Liquete told DZMM.
"Marami na kaming backlog. Nag-iiyakan na yung mga pasiyente namin, uulit na naman ng workup yung mga pasiyente. So kailangan na yun, mabawasan man din yung patient na nagdi-dialysis, kung mata-transplant namin (Our backlogs have piled up. Some of our patients are already crying, because they have to repeat their workups. We need to resume our transplant activities to reduce the number of our patients needing dialysis)," she added.
NKTI appealed to authorities to enable other COVID-19 referral centers to likewise accept dialysis patients, noting that 90 percent of its virus patients are also in need of dialysis.
"Ang ibang centers sana mag-accept ng COVID o suspects, sana meron din capacity for dialysis kasi parang dito ang takbuhan. Almost 90 percent ng nandito samin ngayon, nagda-dialysis. Hindi na kaya (I hope other centers accepting COVID or suspected cases also have the capacity to accept dialysis patients because most of them go to us. Almost 90 percent of our patients here, undergo dialysis. We are overwhelmed)," Liquete said.