Mayor Isko Moreno, Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna and city engineer Armand Andres discuss a project in the city. Photo by JERRY S. TAN
Manila to have COVID hospital soon
A HOSPITAL that will cater exclusively to COVID-19 patients will rise in Manila two months from now, in the city government’s effort to declog its six city-run hospitals whose COVID bed allocation will now be made available for those under severe and critical conditions and turned into intensive care units (ICUs).
Mayor Isko Moreno said the city’s seventh hospital which will be called “Manila COVID-19 Field Hospital” will sit on a 2.6-hectare lot and will have 336 COVID beds for patients falling under the mild and moderate cases.
On Saturday, Moreno and Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna visited the site of the field hospital which will be made up of containers that will be converted as hospital areas. It will be built at the Burnham Green area right across the Quirino Grandstand and fronting the road that serves as parade grounds during national events where the city government’s free drive-thru swabbing center is also located.
Moreno and Lacuna held a brainstorming session with city engineer Armand Andres, city architect Pepito Balmoris and other concerned city personnel to polish the plans and everything that will be needed for the new hospital.
According to Andres, Moreno wants the work to be done round-the-clock, stressing that time is of the essence.
The mayor lamented reports that some patients die in tents and even in parking lots due to the inevitable congestion in hospitals amid the overwhelming surge in coronavirus cases recently.
Moreno said that he and Lacuna met with key officials to address another reported impending surge of coronavirus cases in the months to come and vowed that the field hospital will be complete with all the needed facilities.
Under the plan, while all asymptomatic patients will be made to stay at the city’s quarantine facilities, those with mild and moderate symptoms will be placed in the field hospital while those under severe and critical conditions will be accommodated in the city hospitals.
Moreno said he copied the idea from the one done in Italy, whose architect made the concept an ‘open source’ so it can be duplicated elsewhere, adding that he and Lacuna also met with Philippine General Hospital (PGH) officials led by its Director Gap Legaspi, to consult them on the matter.
The mayor added that the field hospital will be complete with ambulances, proper equipment’s and medical frontliners, in consideration of the fact that those with moderate symptoms still face the possibility of being elevated to severe cases.
