{"id":249278,"date":"2020-03-20T05:43:28","date_gmt":"2020-03-20T09:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=249278"},"modified":"2020-03-20T05:43:28","modified_gmt":"2020-03-20T09:43:28","slug":"pgh-jose-rodriguez-tapped-as-exclusive-hospitals-for-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/03\/20\/pgh-jose-rodriguez-tapped-as-exclusive-hospitals-for-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"PGH, Jose Rodriguez tapped as exclusive hospitals for Covid-19"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) in Manila and the Dr. Jose M. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital in Caloocan City will soon exclusively handle persons infected with Covid-19. (File photo by Ramiltibayan\/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday designated at least two public hospitals as exclusive facilities for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients.<\/p>\n

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) in Manila and the Dr. Jose M. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital in Caloocan City will soon exclusively handle persons infected with Covid-19.<\/p>\n

Vergeire said the two hospitals are now transitioning their services for the plan to convert it as \u201cspecific Covid-19 hospitals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIto pong lahat ay mangyayari sa mga susunod na araw<\/em>\u00a0(These hospitals will be used exclusively to treat Covid-19 patients in the coming days),\u201d Vergeire said in a Palace press briefing.<\/p>\n

Vergeire said the latest move would prevent a \u201cmix of patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said all Covid-19 patients would be transferred to UP-PGH and Dr. Jose M. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, patients who are not infected with Covid-19 would be transferred from the designated facilities to other hospitals, Vergeire said.<\/p>\n

In an earlier advisory, the DOH said the UP-PGH has ceased admission of non-emergency cases to ensure sufficient wards and rooms in the establishment amid talks between the hospital\u2019s management and the DOH for its designation as a Covid-19 referral hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe initiative will require full support from the NCR (National Capital Region) medical community since additional health care workers will be needed to complement PGH\u2019s existing workforce,\u201d the advisory read.<\/p>\n

A wing composed of 40 beds at the Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP) will be dedicated to Covid-19 cases, noting that since the LCP houses other immune-compromised patients, great care will be taken to avoid transmission of the disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause LCP is the referral hospital for patients with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and long cancer, care must be taken not to expose these immunocompromised patients,\u201d the advisory read.<\/p>\n

For those interested in helping out during the enhanced community quarantine, the DOH said it continues to encourage those who wish to donate blood to ensure adequate supply for severe and critical patients.<\/p>\n

However, those with symptoms or suspected Covid-19 patients will not be admitted at the Philippine Blood Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe DOH is one with the entire nation in recognizing the many sacrifices health workers have already made and will continue to make, including those in PGH,\u201d the advisory read.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, a group of private hospitals urged the government to centralize all efforts and resources into one or two Covid-19 hospitals that are adequately equipped, citing that their manpower and medical equipment are depleted amid the public health emergency.<\/p>\n

Vergeire said the government\u2019s contingency plan is to have dedicated Covid-19 hospitals that are situated to \u201cstrategic areas of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIto ang ating pinaplano<\/em>\u00a0(This is what we\u2019re planning) and hopefully, it would work for us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country climbed to 217 as of Thursday.\u00a0(with reports from Raymond Carl dela Cruz\/PNA)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday designated at least two public hospitals as exclusive facilities for coronavirus disease …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":249279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249278"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249280,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249278\/revisions\/249280"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}