Visit to PGH’s Ward

I went to PGH yesterday afternoon. I left the office at 1:30 pm.

Me to driver———– “Sa PGH, alam mo ba yun?”
Driver—————– “Oo mam, sa may Baclaran”.
Me——————— “Philippne General Hospital, sa Taft”.
Driver—————– “Sa Taft mam, Pasay”.
Me———————“Taft, dyan ka dumaan, kaliwa, tapos kanan sa SSH, kaliwa sa Quirino, kanan sa Taft”.
Driver—————- “Sa Roxas Blvd. Mam, pano kung papuntang Baclaran yun”.

After 5 minutes
Me——————– “San ka pupunta, kaliwa sa Quirino Hway, bakit nasa gitna ka”.
Driver—————- “Mam, hindi natin alam kung lampas yun”.
Me——————– “Eh di mag-U turn, magtanong”.

Coming from Quirino Hway, turn right at Taft Avenue. PGH is 4 corners or short blocks away.

Me——————- “Itabi mo magtanong ka dun sa ale”.
Driver————— “Mam, pang-apat na kanto daw”.
Me—————— “Pang-ilang kanto na?”
Driver————– “Tatlo, eh hindi naman ito kanto”.
Me—————— “hayan oh ipasok mo dyan sa gate”.
Driver————– “Kanto pa la ito”.

The Philippine General Hospital (PGH) was built in 1907 and is the largest government-owned hospital in the country. It also serves as the training ground for medicine and health sciences students of the University of the Philippines.

Patients are mostly indigents.

There are several very large paintings at the lobby. Sayang wala akong time to look at the signatures. Sino kaya ang nagpaint nito?

I planned on coming here before Christmas but I postponed my visit after the busy holidays.

You cannot go around the hospital rooms without wearing a mask. You can infect them or you could catch some virus or bacteria. Baka ikaw ay mahawa o mahawahan mo sila.

And what the heck am I doing here? Don’t ask.

I don’t look like a nurse or doctor.

I look horrible eh kasi ba naman wiwing wiwi na ako.   I peed naman before I left the office.  I don’t want to go to their toilet ‘nay ko. Kaya pigil miswa pigil. Kaya ayan,  I look constipated.

Ward number 1 contains two very large rooms fronting each other with around 50 beds and about 80 percent occupancy based on what I’ve seen.

The two large rooms are for female patients only. Male companions, visitors, doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff are however allowed.

I surveyed first the current condition of the patients then I counted the number of people inside, the patients’ companions (mga bantay).  There are 50 companions.  the patients  are too sick to eat.   Most of them have life support and hardly breathing.   Except for two women who looked alert.

A dozen young nurses and  doctors are all surrounding one patient.    Tila naghihingalo.

I went to the nurse station and informed nurses on duty, Zaldy and Elma, that I would just go to Jollibee to get some food.  It’s 2 pm.   A new team of nurses would take over for the 3 pm shift.

Elma said she would wait for me.