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'Heartbroken' Robredo calls for real-time updates on available hospital rooms
'Heartbroken' Robredo calls for real-time updates on available hospital rooms
Vice President Leni Robredo is calling for the government to work on updating on real-time the website of available coronavirus-dedicated hospital rooms across the country to assist those who are desperately looking for facilities for COVID-19-positive patients.
Robredo made the statement as stories of COVID-19 patients having difficulty being admitted to hospitals and worse, dying without even entering medical facilities due to full capacity, surface online the past week.
In a Facebook post in her personal account, Robredo acknowledged the role of the government's One Hospital Command but said the system was already overwhelmed due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the country.
"People at the One Hospital Command have been very helpful but the system is so overwhelmed already. The hotlines are difficult to access and in emergency situations, every minute, every second count," she said on Black Saturday morning.
The Vice President lamented how the website the people can visit to check which hospitals can still accommodate them and how long the waiting line is not updated in real-time. She urged the government to work on it.
"I checked the site and there are no real-time updates and people won’t have an idea which hospitals still have vacancies," Robredo said.
"Baka naman puwede na natin itong i-rush? Doable naman siya. Kawawa yung mga kababayan natin (Perhaps we can rush this one out? It is doable. The people are pitiful)," she added.
This week, a tweet by Angelo Barrera, a 22-year-old game developer, went viral after he narrated how his father, a 61-year-old pastor, died outside a hospital room in Parañaque City after hours of searching for any hospital that would accept COVID-19 patients.
"My brother was wailing and crying outside with my mother in shock and unresponsive next to him. My dad died in the cold," he wrote in his tweet on March 28.
In her Facebook post on the morning of Black Saturday, Robredo said social media posts and personal text messages similar to Barrera's situation break her heart.
"It is so heartbreaking to read about posts and text messages from distraught people asking help to find them a hospital room for a COVID-positive family member who is struggling to breathe," the Vice President said.
"It is even worse to receive messages informing us that the patient died while looking for available hospitals," she added.