The Philippine General Hospital (PGH) is slowly recovering after a fire struck the facility during the weekend, its spokesperson said Thursday.
Five of its operating rooms have been opened while its emergency room remains closed, said PGH spokesperson Dr. Jonas del Rosario.
“We have five separate operating rooms. That’s not enough but at least we can operate again because around 30 operating rooms were affected by the fire. Because of that, unfortunately, our emergency room is still closed because we still cannot accept patients especially those needing emergency surgical procedures,” Del Rosario said in an interview on TeleRadyo.
Fire struck a portion of the third floor of the PGH before dawn on Sunday, gutting its operating room supply area where instruments are sterilized and equipment are stored.
Del Rosario hoped the PGH would be able to accommodate patients who need surgery by the end of the week as they expect to be able to open more operating rooms.
He said: “Unless it’s really life and limb threatening and they are already here we will not turn them away.
“Unfortunately, we refer to other hospitals those needing elective and semi-urgent procedures but those that are really emergency cases and are right at our doorsteps, we will not turn them away. That’s why we reserve our very limited operating rooms for those cases,” he said.
As a COVID-19 referral hospital, Del Rosario said they continue to accept coronavirus patients. Coordination must be coursed through their command center by calling the hotline number 155-200.
“Coordination will be fast because the number of patients with COVID in our hospital has decreased. Now we have 110 patients out of the 250. PGH can still accommodate COVID patients,” he said.
“‘We’re slowly recovering. Clearing operations continue at the operating room sterilization area with the help of the DPWH. We still could not use the operating rooms because they are still fixing it and we still need to get clearance for the electrical if we could already use it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Del Rosario thanked all those who continue to donate to the hospital.