By Patrick de Jesus
From just an average of 110 calls per day last year, Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary and treatment czar Leopoldo Vega said the One Hospital Command center is now receiving almost 400 calls per day, due to the surge of COVID-19 cases.
The One Hospital Command that was established last year serves as a healthcare referral network linked to hospitals, quarantine facilities, and medical transportation.
“Nagkaroon kami ng kaunting improvement nito noong ilang buwan, pero hindi namin kinaya ang number of calls na dumarating ngayon sa surge na ‘to, kasi twice as much as we had experience last year,” Vega said in the Laging Handa public briefing aired over PTV today.
[We had a slight improvement over the last few months, but we cannot cope with the number of calls that we are receiving now during this surge, because they are twice as (many) as we had experience (with) last year.]
Vega said they are expanding the number of personnel of the command center, as well as improving its setup and system.
In a house health committee inquiry yesterday, he admitted that the One Hospital Command has a “very basic setup.”
“Tama, very basic, wala kaming sophisticated system or call-forwarding or mechanism na pwedeng mag-transfer ng calls. Ito ay ginagawa namin ngayon, naghingi na kami ng tulong sa Department of Health. Of course, kailangan ng isang procurement nito,” Vega said.
[That’s right, very basic, we don’t have a sophisticated system or call-forwarding or mechanism that can transfer calls. We are working on this now, we have asked for help from the DOH. Of course, this needs to be procured.]
Meanwhile, with some hospitals having reached full capacity of their allocated COVID-19 beds and facilities, the treatment czar said they have proposed to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to build more field hospitals for moderate to severe COVID-19 patients.
Current operational modular hospitals in the National Capital Region (NCR) are located at the Lung Center of the Philippines with 20 to 30 beds, and Jose Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center with 40 beds. A modular field hospital constructed at the Quezon Institute (QI) will be operationalized by April, with a larger capacity of 110 beds.
“Mayroon pa rin kaming mga proposal through the DPWH na magtayo pa rin ng field hospitals, kasi ang field hospitals can be constructed in 45 days. So mayroon kaming proposal sa Lung Center for 88 beds, at mayroon din kaming proposal for another extension sa QI for 88 beds, so roughly siguro mag-increase ang ating capacity for moderate to severe [patients’] beds, lalong lalo na dito sa Metro Manila,” the DOH official said.
[We have proposed to the DPWH to set up more field hospitals, because field hospitals can be constructed in 45 days. So we have a proposal for 88 beds at the Lung Center, and we also have a proposal for another extension at QI for 88 beds, so roughly our capacity for moderate to severe patients’ beds will increase, especially here in Metro Manila.]
