Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30) — Hospitals under the Metro Pacific Group, which include the Makati Medical Center and Asian Hospital, have chosen the Our Lady of Lourdes in Manila as the group’s main referral facility for COVID-19 cases.
Metro Pacific Hospitals said in a disclosure that it has chosen the facility in Santa Mesa as its main hospital to handle novel coronavirus patients out of the 16 hospitals in the group.
Some of the Manny Pangilinan-led healthcare facilities have said they are now at full capacity, leaving them with no choice but to send COVID-19 patients needing confinement or urgent care to other hospitals.
The Our Lady of Lourdes is a level 3 hospital fully-owned by the Metro Pacific group, which has a 230-bed capacity.
The Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Manila Doctors Hospital, De Los Santos Medical Center, and Davao Doctors Hospital are also part of the Metro Pacific Hospitals group. The upscale Makati Medical Center is the biggest with 600 beds.
The unit of the conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corporation said a crisis team has also been formed, led by Atty. Pilar Nenuca Almira who chairs Cardinal Santos and the Our Lady of Lourdes hospitals.
“By designating a hospital within the Group to be the main referral facility for PUM/PUI (persons under monitoring/persons under investigation) and COVID infected cases, we are aligning our efforts with the Government to address the pandemic,” Almira said in a statement.
The government has identified the Philippine General Hospital in Manila and the Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital in Caloocan City as exclusive COVID-19 centers amid the outbreak.
Meanwhile, all hospitals under the MVP group have been told to review their spaces, personnel count and technical resources with the goal of doubling their capacity to handle coronavirus patients.
Pangilinan said the healthcare system now faces “unprecedented challenges” due to the global pandemic, forcing their hospitals to focus resources on critical concerns. This meant providing hospital care for the most critically ill due to COVID-19.
“Should the pandemic rise in intensity in the coming weeks, the Hospitals Group has been
mandated to plan for supplemental tents, with beds and requisite equipment, for noncritical COVID cases in selected hospital grounds, as an extraordinary measure,” the group added.
There are now 78 deaths out of the 1,546 recorded coronavirus cases in the Philippines. The entire Luzon and other provinces and cities in Visayas and Mindanao have been on enhanced community quarantine to contain the spread of the disease.
