GENERAL SANTOS CITY – The city government will open soon more treatment and isolation beds for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients.
Dr. Ryan Aplicador, chief of the local government-run Dr. Jorge P. Royeca Hospital (DJPRH), on Tuesday said the preparations are underway for the operation of the newly completed 27-bed temporary treatment and monitoring facility (TTMF) at the hospital compound.
The Department of Health-Region 12 formally turned over the PHP10 million facility to the local government on Monday.
Implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways, the project was funded under Republic Act 11494 or the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act (Bayanihan 2).
Aplicador said the TTMF, which expands the existing Covid-19 Center at the DJPRH, will mainly cater to Covid-19 patients.
“But once the pandemic is over, we will use it as isolation for communicable diseases like TB (Tuberculosis),” he said in an interview with the Radio Mindanao Network here.
He said it will be similar to the separate isolation facilities for communicable diseases operated by major hospitals, especially in Metro Manila.
The official said they are hoping that the additional rooms and beds would be enough to accommodate the current Covid-19 patients.
He said they have been working on easing the use of the existing wards at the main hospital building that are intended for non-Covid cases.
Aplicador said they have limited the ward admission for Covid-19 patients to 100 to ensure proper spacing after previously reaching around 300.
Aside from the ward beds, DPRJH’s treatment facility has 12 single rooms, three intensive care unit facilities and a dialysis room.
He said the Sangguniang Panlungsod or city council has approved the supplemental funding of around PHP100 million that they requested for Covid-19 response.
It will be used to buy more medicine, medical supplies, personal protective equipment, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction kits for the molecular laboratory, as well as machines and equipment for Covid-19 treatment, he said. (PNA)
Source: Philippines News Agency
