Manila, Feb. 16 -- Allowing PhilHealth members to occupy vacant pay ward beds when basic wards are full will help decongest public hospitals and speed up patient admissions, Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said Monday.

Cayetano said the move makes full use of existing hospital capacity, particularly during peak periods when charity wards are overcrowded but some pay beds remain unused.

"Sometimes the problem is not the absence of a new policy, but the failure to use what is already allowed," he said.

The senator earlier raised the issue during Senate deliberations on the proposed 2026 budget of the Department of Health, questioning why vacant pay ward rooms could not be opened to patients waiting in full basic wards.

"If y...