MANILA - Compared to the previous weeks, queues in hospitals’ emergency rooms are shorter now, according to the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines and some medical institutions Friday.

PHAPI president Dr. Jose Rene De Grano said the seeming relaxing of queues in health facilities might be due to the expanded teleconsultation lines of both government and private hospitals.

This can also be attributed, he said, to the intensified operations of the One Hospital Command Center (OHCC), a centralized hospital occupancy monitoring system that aims to smoothen referrals of COVID-19 patients, to assist the public during medical emergencies.

“That means alam na ng mga tao kung papanong gagawin. They probably are consulting already itong One Hospital Command or their BHERTS (barangay health emergency response teams)," he said in a virtual interview on Friday.

(People now know what to do. Maybe they are consulting with our One Hospital Command or their BHERTs.)

"Sila ngayon ang nagpa-facilitate ng transfer ng mga positive cases especially kung asymptomatic lang naman at mild,” he added.

(They are now facilitating the transfer of positive cases, most especially if they are asymptomatic or mild)

In private hospitals, meanwhile, the number of people getting admitted “remains the same," he said.

The possible effect of the stricter lockdown regarding the number of new infections in the capital region and 4 nearby provinces (Laguna, Rizal, Cavite, and Bulacan) - known as the NCR Plus bubble - can only be seen in the following weeks, according to De Grano.

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“Pag tsinek mo 'yung mga hospitals, 'yung mga dating puno, puno pa rin… even if you check the regions surrounding, let’s say Region 4 dito sa Southern Tagalog, Regions 3, 2 and even up to the Cordillera Administrative Region, makikita mo na halos punuan din ang mga hospitals,” he explained.

(If you check the hospitals, those that previously announced full occupancy are still full. Even if you check surrounding provinces... their utilization rate is almost full)

Hospitals in surrounding provinces, he pointed out, also cater to Metro Manila-based patients.

A virus patient normally stays in the hospital for a minimum of 14 days, although patients in private hospitals have the option to stay longer because they are paying.

These days, however, patients awaiting confinement are now put in a “waiting list” and will only be called in case there is already a bed vacancy to avoid waiting inside the hospital compound, he said.

Additional hospital beds and the opening of modular hospitals in Metro Manila hospitals, somehow reduced the influx of patients in the region, according to De Grano.

Hospitals in the NCR Plus bubble and nearby provinces have been overwhelmed with fresh COVID-19 admissions, despite the reintroduction of stricter lockdowns.

It also came to the point where the government was distributing modular tents to struggling hospitals and re-deploying health workers from regions where virus transmission rates are low.

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DECONGESTING HOSPITALS

Asked if the hospitals are nearing the stage of relief in terms of the number of patients, De Grano said: “Next week siguro we will see kung medyo bumababa na ng konti.”

In East Avenue Medical Center in Quezon City, hospital director Alfonso Nuñez said that their COVID-bed utilization rate is now between 78 and 85 percent.

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“Health care workers isolated/quarantined is [at] 125. Personal protective equipment and other [supplies are] still adequate although pushed to the limits at a certain surges sa ER,” Nuñez said in a text message to ABS-CBN News.

OHCC Operations Manager Dr. Bernadett Velasco said the health care capacity in the NCR Plus bubble is easing.

Velasco, however, took note of the national government's distribution of additional beds, opening of modular tents and the more active participation of the referral center to help decongest medical facilities.

“I wouldn’t say na lumuluwag sya. But I would rather say na nagi-increase tayo ng capacity ng bed allocation for COVID cases," she said.

(I wouldn't say it is easing. We are increasing our bed allocation for COVID cases)

"Our experience here in the command center… hindi pa rin nagda-downtrend yung calls na nare-receive namin... nandun pa rin sa 350 yung cases (calls) natin. Yung active cases we still have to check,” the doctor added.

(Calls in the OHCC are yet to decrease. The calls still peak around 350.)

Only patients needing immediate hospital attention, she said, are being prioritized for confinement.

Some public health experts have also suggested home care to asymptomatic and mild COVID-19 patients, to ease the struggling health care capacity.

The country has logged a total of 904,285 coronavirus infections, of which 183,527 or 20.3 percent were active cases as of Thursday, the Department of Health (DOH) said in its latest bulletin

The agency also reported 148 new COVID-related deaths, pushing the country's coronavirus death toll to 15,594.

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