Robredo asks DOH anew: ‘Why are COVID-19 patients waiting if there are available hospital beds?’


Vice President Leni Robredo asked the government to set up field hospitals to augment the capacity of the health facilities to accept new patients as the number of COVID-19 positive cases continues to rise in the country. 

Vice President Leni Robredo (Photo by Jansen Romero/ MANILA BULLETIN)

In a Facebook post on Wednesday night, she asked the Department of Health (DOH) and Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on COVID-19 response to “seriously look into the shortage of hospital beds for patients.”

“For almost a week now, we have been receiving distress calls from family members of COVID positive patients who cannot be admitted to hospitals. We have read how many have already died inside tents outside hospitals, waiting to be admitted to the ERs, in ambulances while in transit, at home without receiving any medical help,” she said. 

Robredo reiterated her recommendation “many times over” of the country’s need to expand its hospital bed capacity “by setting up field hospitals, hiring more health care workers and paying them well, making sure hospitals are equipped with everything necessary to treat patients.”

Read more: VP Leni calls out DOH over ‘confusing’ daily COVID-19 tally

Reports on social media said that people with COVID and non-COVID symptoms can no longer find hospitals that can accommodate them because the intensive care unit (ICU) and isolation beds of hospitals are at full capacity. 

Even former President Joseph Estrada had to wait in the emergency room before being admitted because the hospitals are at full capacity. 

Singer Claire Dela Fuente died outside the emergency room because the hospital could no longer accommodate her.

The vice president repeated the call after watching the coverage of the hearings of the Committee on Health on Wednesday.

During the hearing, the DOH stood by its data “that hospitals are not full yet and was insisting that 93 percent of COVID-19 patients have mild symptoms and do not need hospitalization.”

The DOH’s case bulletin on March 31 showed that in the National Capital Region (NCR), only 79 percent of ICU beds, 69 percent of isolation beds, 61 percent of ward beds, and 60 percent of ventilators have been utilized. 

“But again, iba yung personal account ng mga families sa sinasabi sa DOH data (the personal account of the families are different from the DOH data). If people who don’t need hospitalization are still getting in line in hospitals, there must be underlying reasons. Have we built a system where people who are self isolating at home would still have access to medical help when necessary?,” Robredo asked. 

“Most of the people coming to us for help are saying they can’t contact the hotline numbers given. It must be because the system is already overloaded.”

The IATF last year established the One Hospital Command Center as a centralized hospital occupancy monitoring system, but several reports said that they cannot contact the Center.

“Inayos man lang ba yung infrastructure nito? (Is the infrastructure for this already fixed?),” Robredo asked again. 

The vice president said there are Home Care Medical Packages currently being offered for COVID-19 patients who can quarantine and receive treatment at home. 

However, what worries her are those who cannot afford these packages.

“Pasensya na po na makulit tayo (I’m sorry if we are persistent) about this. People are getting sick and are dying. Bilis bilisan sana natin yung pagtugon kasi sobrang urgent pag buhay ng tao nakataya (We should be faster in addressing it because it’s very urgent when lives are at stake),” Robredo said. 

On Wednesday, the Philippines logged 6,128 COVID-19 cases, down from the 10,016 it recorded on Monday.