Quezon City congressmen are asking Senate to fasttrack the passage of a bill proposing the increase of bed capacity of the East Avenue Medical Center that continues to face the overwhelming task of addressing the surge in 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases.
In an open letter to the Senate,, the Lower House solons led by 4th District Rep. Jesus “Bong” Suntay underscored the need to upgrade the EAMC which is one of the 66 hospitals under the direct supervision of the Department of Health.
“Each day. it is overwhelmed with thousands of patients referred from all over the Philippines, yet, for more than twenty-four (24) years, EAMC has not been upgraded nor improved,” five of the six QC solons said.
Aside from Suntay, other signatories of the letter are Reps. Anthony Peter Crisologo (1st District); Precious Hipolito Castelo (2nd District); Allan Benedict Reyes (3rd District) and Alfred Vargas (5th District).
The lawmakers said EAMC which is located in QC’s 4th district, has a current bed capacity of 600.
They co-authored House Bill 6728 which seeks to increase the present bed capacity from 600 to 1,000.
“Since the start of the pandemic, the EAMC has also been a COVID referral capacity. It has been operating at its full capacity, with not less than 200 COVID-related cases currently admitted while the other COVID patients are in waiting,” the QC solons explained.
“The current crisis has only accentuated the long-standing problem of insufficient bed capacity of the hospital,” they stressed.
In their appeal, the lawmakers pointed out that the current bed occupancy rate of EAMC is 161%, “say above” the national standard of 86 percent.
They pointed out that EAMC patients are not limited to QC residents. Since it is a DOH-run hospital, many of its patients come from various parts of the country, especially in Metro Manila.
“For EAMC to continue delivering care to patients from all ove the country, it is imperative that it gets enough funding for significant improvements,” the QC legislator said.
“With the pandemic we are currently facing, it is high time that the government invest in improving healthcare service and delivery,” they appealed..