Mayor Isko Moreno and Sta. Ana Hospital Director Dr. Grace Padilla tour the hospital’s soon to be opened dialysis center. Photo by JERRY S. TAN
Manila to open 3rd dialysis center at Sta Ana Hospital
THE newly-rehabilitated Sta. Ana Hospital Dialysis Center which is equipped with modern and high-tech features is slated to be opened anytime soon.
This was announced by Mayor Isko Moreno, who said the new dialysis center falling under the supervision of hospital director Dr. Grace Padilla will be the third in Manila. One is in Ospital ng Maynila while the other one is the Siojo Dialysis Center, touted to be the biggest in Southeast Asia and which is under the supervision of Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center (GABMMC) Director Ted Martin.
Moreno said the city government did not spend a single centavo for the said center as the money used amounting to P20 million came from a donor who did not want to be named.
According to Moreno, the new Sta. Ana Hospital dialysis center has 11 seats with six fresinus hemodialysis machines, high-end HD machines and two machines with portable reverse osmosis.
He added that it also has negative pressure room for COVID-19 patients, complete with high efficiency particulate (HEPA) Filter and portable reverse osmosis and 11 television sets with wireless bluetooth headsets.
In terms of equipment, Moreno said the new center has a new ECG machine, defibrillator, suction machine, HEPA filter, ECart with medications, digital wheelchair weighing scale, computers and printers.
Padilla told Moreno that the center can accommodate 12 patients per day and will be serving dialysis patients from Monday to Friday. On Saturday and Sunday, only emergency dialysis will be done.
Operation hours will be from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and nurses will be working there on shifts.
Padilla said the new center will serve 26 patients per month in three times a week dialysis but once the dialysis center becomes fully-maximized,11 dialysis machines will be utilized with 22 patients per day capacity accomodating 66 patients per month.
There will also be isolation rooms for dialysis patients with COVID-19 while another dialysis unit will be placed at the Intensive Care Unit, Padilla added. The hospital’s dialysis area is located at the sixth floor.
Moreno said the new center will complement the Flora V. Valisno de Siojo Dialysis Center which he opened on his 45th birthday in 2019 along with Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna, Dr. Martin and the late former Mayor Alfredo S. Lim, after whose grandmother the center was named.
Normally, dialysis treatments cost about P2,200 to P5,000 each and are done three times a week.
