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MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Leni Robredo has cast doubt on the claim that hospitals can still cope with the influx of COVID-19 patients: So why do people have to make reservations or queue outside hospitals? to wait for available spaces?
Robredo repeated in a Facebook post on Wednesday his observation that Health Department data on the availability of hospital beds for COVID-19 patients in Metro Manila and nearby provinces did not reflect the situation on the ground.
“For almost a week now, we have been receiving distress calls from relatives of Covid-positive patients who cannot be admitted to hospitals. We have read how many have already died inside the tents outside the hospitals, waiting to be admitted to the ER, in ambulances in transit, at home without receiving any medical help, “said Robredo in his Facebook post.
According to the DOH COVID-19 bulletin on Wednesday, the capacity of hospitals across the country has not been filled – only 79 percent of ICU beds, 69 percent of isolation beds, 61 percent of ICU beds. One hundred of the beds in the wards assigned to patients with COVID-19 in Metro Manila have been occupied.
But Robredo challenged these figures, citing reports that several COVID-19 patients had been asked to wait to be housed, either outside of hospitals or at home.
He said doctors informed him Tuesday that the figures from the Health Department and the reality on the ground did not match, as there could have been a reduction in the number of allocated beds.
Even the government’s own One Hospital Command Center, he said, referred patients to hospitals far from Metro Manila.
But on Wednesday, Dr. Ted Herbosa, special adviser to the National COVID-19 Task Force, said hospitals could still make room for COVID-19 patients. He added that there was no collapse of the health system because the government was still finding ways to adapt despite the overcrowding in Metro Manila.
“We can still adapt,” he said, speaking in part in Filipino, at the Laging Handa briefing. “If you look at the numbers, our national hospital utilization rate is still below 70 percent, that’s not a crash yet.”
Robredo said that statement is different from the accounts of people whose relatives had waited a long time before being admitted or died while waiting.
“If people who don’t need hospitalization keep lining up at hospitals, there must be underlying reasons. Have we built a system where people who isolate themselves at home still have access to medical help when needed? Robredo asked.
“Most of the people who come to us for help say they cannot reach the hotline numbers provided. It must be because the system is already overloaded, “he added. “Have they at least fixed the infrastructure for this? There are many that offer medical home care packages. But what about those who do not have money to pay?
Overcrowding in hospitals has been well documented not only by ordinary netizens but also by several well-known figures. According to former Senator JV Ejercito, it was quite a while before his father, former President Joseph Estrada, a positive COVID-19 patient, obtained a room.
Singer Claire de la Fuente, who died of a heart attack on Tuesday, was also a COVID-19 patient. De la Fuente’s son, Gregorio de Guzmán, said his mother’s death was believed to have been due to stress and anxiety, as they were unable to get a hospital room after trying two hospitals.
De la Fuente eventually died in a hospital emergency room, two days after staying in a tent outside another hospital.
Robredo sought DOH’s patience over his repeated calls.
“Sorry to insist on this. People get sick and die. I hope we can speed up our response a bit because it is really very urgent when people’s lives are at stake, ”he said.
The current rise of COVID-19 in the country has forced the government to place Metro Manila and four adjacent provinces (Bulacan, Rizal, Cavite and Laguna) under a single so-called bubble under an improved community quarantine again.
As of Wednesday, the total number of active COVID-19 infections exceeded 130,000 after another 6,128 people tested positive for the disease.
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