Duque requests less watchers as Manila Water to supply 50% of hospital needs

March 14, 2019

The Department of Health (DOH) ordered hospitals hit with water supply shortage to strictly implement the one watcher per patient policy.

In a press conference Thursday at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) in Quezon City, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said there is a need to implement certain restrictions when it comes to patients' watchers.

“I would also like to appeal to the relatives of patients: Can we please limit the watchers of your patients to one? We hope you will understand our situation,” said Duque.

“I think this has to be strictly implemented in these hospitals, especially the affected ones, considering the water crisis,” he said.

''As per our hospital directors, the more company that a patient has, the higher the water consumption and demand will be. And this we can no longer afford for now,” explained Duque.

Duque said tankers shall be bringing water to hospitals, especially during peak hours. He said Manila Water will supply 250,000 liters to hospitals everyday. 

Duque said there will be rotating schedule of water interruptions.

Duque said this would mean hospitals will be given opportunity to store water between 4am to 5pm daily before supply is cut for the rest of the day

The health department said at least five government hospitals are experiencing water shortage.

Aside from NKTI, other hospitals are the Rizal Medical Center in Pasig City; the National Center for Mental Health in Mandaluyong City; as well as in the Philippine Children’s Medical Center, and the Quirino Memorial Medical Center, both in Quezon City.

NKTI executive director Rose Marie Liquete said their patients are being made to shift from hemodialysis to peritoneal dialysis.

“Hemodialysis needs a lot of water. We have shifted our new patients to peritoneal dialysis,” said Liquete.

She said 6-8 liters of water is needed during peritoneal dialysis as compared to hemodialysis, which needs 100 liters.

NKTI said they are averaging 280 hemodialysis patients daily while peritoneal dialysis patients account for only 30 a day.

Liquete said they expect more dialysis patients to troop to the NKTI as more independent dialysis centers offering hemodialysis are referring their patients to them.

“We expect this to also impact our admission as we expect them to increase,” said Liquete. DMS