The Philippine General Hospital (PGH) is preparing for the influx of cancer patients in the following years attributed to pandemic-delayed tests and treatments.
"With what happened during the pandemic, a lot of patients were not able to go to hospitals. So we are looking at mostly advanced cases right now. We are looking at two or three years of backlog on these kinds of patients," PGH Cancer Institute Chairman Dr. Jorge Ignacio said to reporters.
Around 75% of 46 patients in the cancer institute have been classified as advanced cases, higher than the pre-pandemic record of 60%. However, they see the eased pandemic health restrictions as the reason for the possible increase in percentage.
Dr. Ignacio then assured the public that the manpower of PGH can accommodate the expected increase in cancer cases.
"The good thing about our culture is that we've always looked at patients [under the] advanced cases [category] so I would say we are on an above average kind of level looking at those patients," he added.
He also noted that over 60,000 to 70,000 outpatients were catered to by PGH a year, with a daily average of 500.
