A FIRE of still undetermined origin razed part of the third floor of the Philippine General Hospital early yesterday, forcing hospital officials to temporarily close the emergency room to serve as evacuation area for displaced patients.
As firefighters struggled to contain the blaze that started shortly after midnight, hospital staff transferred new-born babies and other pediatric patients to other medical facilities while making sure that COVID-19 patients were safely separated from others being evacuated.
There were no casualties, according to PGH spokesman Dr. Jonas del Rosario, but added they were forced to shut down their emergency room to be used as an evacuation site.
“We appeal for the understanding of the public for closing our ER as we used it as evacuation center. We cannot accept patients at the ER for the moment,” Del Rosario said.
The Manila City Fire Department is still determining the cause of the fire, which reached second alarm minutes before 1 a.m. and later third alarm. The blaze was finally put out at around 5:45 a.m.
“We were forced to use our ER for patients displaced by the fire as they cannot go back to their rooms yet due to the chaos brought by the fire,” he added.
The Manila Public Information Office said 12 patients from PGH, the biggest hospital in the country with a 1,500-bed capacity, were transferred to the Sta. Ana Hospital. Two other patients were also transferred to the Ospital ng Maynila while four other babies were moved to the Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center.
Del Rosario said most of the patients transferred to other hospitals were confined at the fourth floor, which bore the brunt of the smoke coming from the fire that started at around 12:30 a.m. at the Operating Room Sterilization Area.
Del Rosario said smoke reached as high as the seventh floor and affected other areas of the hospital.
“Twelve babies had to be transferred to the Sta. Ana Hospital, which immediately accommodated them,” Del Rosario said.
“We also have five pediatric patients transferred to other hospitals and were also immediately accepted,” he said, adding: “’Yung iba, nasa chapel, sa driveway, sa quadrangle, sa corridor.”
He said COVID patients that also required evacuation were not mixed with other patients.
“We are very careful regarding that. We are very aware that we cannot mix these COVID-19 patients to non-COVID patients at the PGH,” Del Rosario said.
“The challenge now is how to bring them all back,” he added. — With Hazel Hachero
