University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) Director Dr. Gerardo "Gap" Legaspi belied reports on the increase of PGH's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients.
In a televised press briefing Monday, March 8, Legaspi said PGH has started to prepare more beds and open up more wards to cater to patient demand.
"It's not true that we are being overrun by COVID patients, it's that we're overrun by non-COVID patients nitong nakaraang buwan (the past few months)," Legaspi said.
He added that PGH has less COVID-19 patients rushed to its intensive care unit (ICU) now compared to before. The number of severe COVID-19 cases in the hospitals have also lessened.
"Hindi po overwhelmed, kailangan lang mag-reshuffle ng mga kama at mabalik yung dating kapasidad na makatanggap ng COVID patients (We're not overwhelmed, we just need to reshuffle our beds and to bring back our previous bed capacity so we could accept more COVID-19 patients)," Legaspi reiterated.
The PGH director also cited "awareness" as one of the reasons why hospitals are filling up.
"Because there's an increased awareness na pag maagang nagamot, maaaring naiiwasan yung malubha. Maaari pong dumami ang mga pasiyente sa ospital dahil maaga solang nagkokonsulta (Because of the increase awareness that early treatment equals early detection, more and more patients are heading to hospitals for consultations)," Legaspi added.
Meanwhile, in an interview over DZMM also on March 8, PGH Spokesperson Dr. Jonas del Rosario noted a "steady increase" of COVID-19 patients being treated in the hospital.
Considered as the largest COVID-19 referral hospital in the country, PGH has 105 patients as of Saturday, March 6. This, according to del Rosario, is the largest in four months