Philippine General Hospital

A week ago I gave birth to a healthy and handsome baby boy. And I’ve been itching to go online and blog about it for the longest time but I just just find the time nor the energy to do it, until now. After a week of sleep-deprived nights, my body is finally adjusting to the rigors of a nursing mom to a newborn. It also helps that my hubby is in full support-mode and has been doing the household chores that I can’t and shouldn’t be doing still.

I gave birth in Manila, at the Ospital Heneral ng Pilipinas (that’s Philppine Genral Hospital to you! :D) . We picked this hospital mainly for financial reasons. It is still the cheapest hospital that offers high-quality hospital care. It may look dilapidated and old, but the best doctors are still here. This is also where I gave birth last time, six years ago, to our daughter.

When we trooped to the patient admission area, we immediately noticed that they had the area renovated. It is now airconditioned and the seats are new. The officers in charge of admission now also sit behind a glass wall instead of the open table they used to occupy before. The line wasn’t really long but we did spend more or less an hour before being shown our room. They had the number system to attend to the patients in an orderly fashion, but they also entertained various inquiries which I think sidetracks them for a while.

They also gave all admitted patients a hospital kit which contained:

• a digital thermometer
• a bottle of povidone-iodine
• a bottle of alcohol
• cotton
• a roll of gauze bandage
• a roll of micropore tape
• a decent pair of utensils –spoon and fork (not included in picture)
• a small tabo
• a plastic measuring cup
• a small measuring cup (the one used to measure liquid medicines with)
• the PGH blue card
• the watcher’s ID
• the hospital tag
• and a vacuum-packed pillow

We were excited to be getting these! Last time we were here, we got nothing. Just the blue card and the hospital tag. It felt like being admitted into a private hospital!

A sad note though is that just like private hospitals, the PGH is also implementing the deposit-system now. Last time, we were just admitted into the hospital, presenting the admitting orders of my doctor and gave nothing else, no deposits whatsoever. And the deposits are also based on the room that you’re getting. For us who asked to be booked into the Pay Ward, we paid P5, +++ (more than five thousand pesos). For those getting a small private room, the rate would actually reach more than nine thousand pesos!

We opted for the Pay Ward to minimize costs. We’ll still be attended to by our doctors, not be subject to the prodding of medical students, but for a lower cost. Last time they Pay Ward I was booked in had 8 beds in all. This time, there were only seven of us. It was also air-conditioned and had a decent Comfort Room where patients and their bantay can take a bath in.

Luckily we were placed in the bed by the windows, next to the air-conditioning. The night I was admitted, we thought we’d freeze to death, but it was the opposite. Since the lay-out is quite funny, with half of the room obviously colder than the other half whose air-conditioning is being blocked by a wall, some bantay would lower the temperature down. During the day too, when the sun is beating down on our side, being near the air conditioning made it nice actually. J

What I discovered that night though was more than the superficial renovations of PGH, I also was surprised that I was subject to a different preparatory steps this time. I don’t know if its because I’m scheduled for a caesarian section, instead of the ordinary “giving birth” tag. I’ll write about this next time.

*I seem to have a problem uploading pictures. I'll upload some next time. I promise!

*Feb. 6 -- just uploaded a picture. :D