Several hospitals in Metro Manila are seeking additional manpower amid the rising number of COVID-19 patients.
Both the Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP) and the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) said they are in need of reinforcement to attend to their full COVID wards.
‘Lung Center’
In an interview with ANC on Thursday (March 25), LCP spokesman Dr. Norberto Francisco said the hospital has already requested 30 additional nurses from the Department of Health (DOH) last week.
Francisco said the hospital has also opened “urgent positions” for nurses.
The LCP spokesman said that while they can continue to retrofit its remaining wings or wards for COVID patients, it won’t be enough to address the surge in patients.
“You also have to increase manpower,” he said.
The hospital’s COVID wards and critical units have been full for the past 10 days, according to Francisco.
He added that 55 percent of the hospital's beds have already been dedicated to COVID patients.
During the “worst months” of the pandemic, Francisco said the hospital utilized 160 beds for COVID patients, which is 75 percent of its total capacity.
“We normally have about 10 cases waiting at the ER (emergency room) just to get inside the hospitals and these are all the categories of COVID from moderate to severe and the critical cases,” he said.
“We’re trying to cope as much as we can,” he added.
Francisco said the hospital is also eyeing to build “Hospitainers” which will add at least 10 beds.
Meanwhile, the doctor urged the public to not go to LCP without prior communication with the hospital.
“We don't turn away (patients). We have not closed. We are not closing. We are not asking for a timeout," he said.
“But we're asking for understanding from the public that if they go to Lung Center without coordination or if they walk in, they risk waiting on the ambulance or the parking lot because even the emergency room is full," he added.
‘PGH’
PGH spokesman Dr. Jonas del Rosarioo said they are in need of about 30 to 40 doctors for its COVID operations.
“Pagod na rin talaga…Sana magkaroon kami ng reinforcement, naririnig namin na baka magbigay and DOH. Makakatulong po kung makakakuha kami ng reinforcement (The healthcare workers are tired…We hope we can get reinforcement. We heard that DOH is planning to give additional healthcare workers…It will be a big help if we receive reinforcement,” he said in an interview with DZMM Teleradyo.
Like Francisco, Del Rosario also underscored that it will be useless to keep opening new wards for COVID if there will be no personnel to man them.
While PGH has yet to receive additional personnel, Del Rosario said they are doing reshuffling and internal adjustments among its healthcare workers.
Del Rosario also called on the public to implement an “individual ECQ (enhanced community quarantine” to help healthcare workers.