Mandaue City Hospital set to operate extension facility

THE Mandaue City Hospital will start to operate this week its 70-bed capacity extension facility in the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprises Zone Authority building along A. Soriano St.

The facility was built last August to augment the hospital capacity and city’s isolation capacity.

Mayor Jonas Cortes led the blessing of the facility and its turnover to the city hospital together with Vice Mayor Glenn Bercede and the city councilors on Monday, Sept. 6, 2021.

LOOK: Virtual tour of the Mandaue City “Step Down” facility for COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms and patients declared recovered but awaiting completion of quarantine. The facility is just right across Mandaue City Hospital and can house up to 70 patients.

Posted by Mandaue City Public Information Office on Sunday, September 5, 2021

In an interview, Cortes said this week the hospital management will start to transfer some of its hospital equipment in the facility so it can officially start admitting patients by Sept. 10.

Also, Cortes said the Mandaue City Hospital will also focus on the deployment of personnel in the facility.

He said the City Government is still hiring more doctors and nurses to take care of the Covid-19 patients in the city.

In a separate interview, Mandaue City Hospital head Dr. Jake Seno said the opening of the facility was initiated after the hospital had reached 33 admissions, even if it is only a 25-bed hospital.

In August, Seno admitted that there were patients who were placed in a tent, while some patients were given oxygen tanks inside their car or ambulance.

However, as of Sept. 6, the Mandaue City Hospital had 15 admitted Covid-19 patients and two suspected patients.

Despite the decrease in admission, Seno said they will not be complacent; they must prepare for another surge of patients, he added.

The hospital, Seno said, will deploy one ward doctor and two nurses in the facility.

Seno said half of the hospital’s current admissions were ready to be transferred to the step-down facility as some have finished their treatment using antibiotics, and they were only waiting for their antigen results.

As of Sept. 5, the Mandaue City had a total of 1,781 active Covid-19 cases, the Department of Health 7 reported. (KFD)