There is a state of emergency not just for patients but for hospitals as well after the super storm ripped through Tacloban in the Philippines. The Bethany hospital is one which like many has struggled to meet the needs of the hundreds who made their way there hoping for help and treatment.

Some of the wards have been partly flooded by rising waters. Power is down and a lack of emergency generators has left much of the building in darkness hampering doctors and nurses trying to tend to the injured.

“We are admitting them as much as we can because we cannot refuse them. We are managing them with the available supplies, medicines and manpower,” said Albert De Leon the Hospital Director.

The spectre of death hangs in the air. One mother’s baby died in her arms. The typhoon had stopped her getting to the hospital with her sick child in time for life-saving treatment.

The scenes in the Bethany Hospital highlight the huge health challenges facing the Philippines and time is critical. The World Health Organisation says the peak danger period is between 10 days and one month after such an event as Typhoon Haiyan.