SLMC reduces bed capacity as frontliners get sick

Bed capacity at St. Luke's Medical Center has been reduced as frontliners are falling ill amid the coronavirus pandemic, St. Luke's chief medical officer Dr. Benjamin Campomanes said Friday.

"Hindi na namin mabigyan ng tao ang ibang ward. Nagbabawas kami ng bed capacity dahil wala kaming tao," he told ABS-CBN's TeleRadyo.

The Department of Health earlier said it is hiring up to 8,000 healthcare workers for 3-month contracts to be deployed in different hospitals all over the country.

St. Luke's is allotting 30 percent of its total bed capacity for COVID-19 patients due to a boom in coronavirus cases.

Campomanes said the hospital's intensive care unit in Quezon City is now at 145 percent occupancy, with some patients placed in provisional ICUs.

ABS-CBN TeleRadyo, July 31, 2020