80% of health care takes place outside of hospitals — expert
Philippine General Hospital (PGH) Director Dr. Gerardo Legaspi, on Friday, April 22, said that a huge percentage of healthcare takes place outside hospitals.
In a webinar held by the University of the Philippines (UP), Legaspi stressed the importance of well-established primary care facilities especially amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I have realized that 80 percent of healthcare actually happens outside the hospital. A big part of the operations of our regular non-Covid healthcare could be taken care of by primary care development which translates also to taking care of the Covid-19 pathway care,” said Legaspi.
Legaspi likewise underscored that if the country has good healthcare, patients could be treated at home, contact tracing would have been easier, and vaccination programs could have been mapped out at an earlier time with a wider scope.
“The lesson here is that primary care is where the battle is fought, and a hospital is where the wounded and the dying are sent,” he added.
Legaspi likewise stressed that now is the time to build networks that could prepare the country against health crises in the future.
Meanwhile, the concept of strengthening the country’s healthcare system was backed by Dr. Ernesto Domingo who said that if there had been a functioning Universal Healthcare in place, the country could have handled the Covid-19 pandemic better.