Camille Naredo

The National Kidney and Transplant Institute's emergency room reaches full capacity on November 24, 2022. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News/File

The National Kidney and Transplant Institute's emergency room reaches full capacity on November 24, 2022, mostly due to patients on dialysis, including those with leptospirosis and COVID-19. The medical center advised the public to look for other hospitals as it deals with patient overcapacity and lack of manpower. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News

Article (news)

NKTI-FULL CAPACITY

Raphael Bosano

ABS-CBN News

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/175127767977920221124-nkti-full-capacity-MD-8.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="The National Kidney and Transplant Institute&#x27;s emergency room reaches full capacity on November 24, 2022. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News/File"/>The National Kidney and Transplant Institute&#x27;s emergency room reaches full capacity on November 24, 2022. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News/File</div>MANILA — Patients at The Medical City can expect to either be admitted or discharged within four hours from entering the emergency room. This, following the expansion of the hospital’s Emergency Care Unit which not only provides bigger space but also more beds and medical staff.The move, according to its president and group CEO Dr. Stuart Bennet, is a response to the increasing demand for emergency services.“So people are not waiting as long in line. They are moving through the process quicker. We also introduced a tracking mechanism whereby we can see in real time how long people have been waiting,” he said.Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa called the hospital’s pronouncement and assurance of a four-hour waiting time in the Emergency Department a “bold move”.“The processing time from entry to the door to the rooms is 4 hours. They have an average now of 3 hours, 49 minutes. I’m thinking now I should impose the same (in government facilities),” Herbosa said.The health chief explained that wait times in emergency rooms in government facilities can range anywhere between 12 to 24 hours.“We need to change that kind of system. It’ll be a big challenge.”<div> </div><div>HOW IT WORKS</div>From the moment a patient walks in to the hospital’s emergency room and gets registered, they can expect time to start ticking. Among the factors that contribute to faster processes is that triaging is done by an emergency medicine physician who can better observe, make more accurate clinical assessment and traffic patients to the right care areas - urgent care, non-urgent care and emergent area.“Part of the challenge as an emergency physician is that you rely on other specialists. You can say that it is a surgical case, but you need a surgeon who’s willing to accept the case and historically that hasn’t happened. And so people are usually pushing the buck around. Now, they’re all aligned.”The expanded unit also has a dedicated Mental Health High Dependency Secure Area for patients undergoing psychological distress; a trauma room for those with serious physical injuries needing immediate care; and an isolation room for those whose illnesses require infection control protocols.“Historically people have been sitting in the ER because there’s no bed. So we’ve increased the number of beds available, we’ve increased the staffing levels, we’ve ensured a very rapid turnover so everyday we know there’s at least a certain number of beds available. So we never end up in a situation where we don’t have available beds in this hospital,” Bennet said.Patients are also ensured transparency and are kept informed of the status of wait times through its digital queueing system.Herbosa says the DOH is also working to provide superior health care services to its patients and now employs technology to ease processes.Most recently, the agency launched its Patient Appointment System where booking certain appointments and availing of certain services in at least three government hospitals can be done on one’s smartphone.However, the government acknowledges that it needs more medical personnel if it were to further improve services to the public.“I just need to train more surgeons, more emergency physicians. In fact I told them they are welcome to work in any DOH hospitals because that’s the best value. People who worked in a private hospital, put them in a public hospital so they can put up the standard,” Herbosa said.Just last week, it sought applications to fill some1,800 permanent positions in different government health facilities.The Medical City said it is willing to work with the government and also learn from them to ensure that patient care and medical services for Filipinos are optimized and accessible.“So long as the government is willing to work with us, we’re happy to work with them. I don’t think the private sector is better than the government facilities. We have different challenges, they have different challenges. The key is to really work together to reduce them as much as possible,” Bennet said.

The Department of Health is trying to reduce wait times in public hospital emergency rooms following assurance from private hospitals that they can complete emergency procecures in just four hours.

The Department of Health is trying to reduce wait times in public hospital emergency rooms following assurance from private hospitals that they can complete emergency procecures in just four hours.

DOH targets reducing 12-24 hour wait times in public hospital emergency rooms

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DOH targets reducing 12-24 hour wait times in public hospital emergency rooms

Raphael Bosano,

ABS-CBN News

Published Jun 30, 2025 06:04 PM PHT

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The Medical City

Department of Health

Emergency Care

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