The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday said that they have already coordinated with concerned agencies following the fire incidents in two hospitals this month.
“We have already coordinated with the Department of the Interior and Local Government, local government units, and the Bureau of Fire Protection to have the monitoring across our hospitals,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an online media forum.
Vergeire noted that fire incidents are “highest during the summer season.”
“We want to prevent incidents like this in the future,” she said referring to the fire that gutted the storage facility of the Pasig City General Hospital on May 12 and on May 16 wherein the Operating Room Sterilization Area on the third floor of Philippine General Hospital (PGH) was also hit by fire.
Vergeire also said that the DOH hospitals have accepted eight patients from PGH and four other patients are set to be transferred.
She added that N95 masks were also given by the DOH to PGH.
“They [health-care workers] are required to wear the N95 mask for 48 ours because the smoke [odor] is still lingering,” she said.
Devastating blow
Philippine Red Cross (PRC) Chairman and CEO Sen. Richard Gordon has lamented that the fire that gutted the Philippine General Hospital, the largest Covid-19 referral hospital in the country, was a devastating blow to the health-care system “already overwhelmed by the pandemic.”
Living up to its mantra of being always first, always ready, and always there, PRC immediately responded to help put off the fire, evacuate and transport the patients when the fire broke out at the Operating Room Sterilization Area on the third floor of the PGH before dawn on Sunday.
The PRC immediately dispatched two fire trucks and six ambulances from the National Headquarters (NHQ) and nearby PRC Chapters.
There were 32 staff and volunteers equipped with self-contained breathing apparatuses who were mobilized.
A total of 15 patients were assisted and transported to the PGH New Emergency Room Building, and one patient with stem cell cancer to the Manila Doctors Hospital.
Gordon ordered the deployment of two units of ram fans from PRC NHQ, and requested four units from the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Fire Department as augmentation. Ram fans are critical in the current situation to clear and eject smoke from confined spaces.
Patients occupying these confined spaces will be able to breathe easier with the operation of these fans. Bed sheets were similarly provided for the patients.
Gordon vowed that the PRC would continue to fulfill its mandate as auxiliary to the government to help alleviate the suffering of most vulnerable Filipinos.