Covid-19 treatment facility opens in Subic
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — A 500bed facility for the treatment and monitoring of patients infected with Covid-19 was opened here on Wednesday to increase the country’s healthcare system, surge capacity and allow hospitals in Metro Manila to care for more patients with medium to severe symptoms.
The “We Heal As One Center” located at the sprawling and gated former Cubi Hospital complex deep in the forest of Ilanin East here, was opened as the government sought to decongest public hospitals at the National Capital Region where occupancy rate was already at the breaking point.
The facility is an interagency cooperation project of the Department of Health (DOH), Office of Civil Defense (OCD), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ), Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), Jose B. Lingad Memorial General Hospital (JBLMGH), and Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
BCDA President and National Task Force (NTF) against Covid-19 Deputy Chief Implementer Vivencio “Vince” Dizon said during the inauguration here that the facility will benefit patients not only from the Subic Bay and Central Luzon areas, but also from Manila.
“In fact, I’ve already received calls from a lot of local government units that wanted to know if they can bring patients here,” Dizon revealed.
He said the “We Heal As One Center” will eventually have a 500-bed capacity from the present 371 beds, plus 100 beds that will be available at the former US Naval Hospital, which can take in patients with severe symptoms.
In the same occasion, SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma pledged another 34 hospital beds to be transferred from the care and isolation facility that the SBMA has put up last year at the Subic Gym, which became a Doh-certified community isolation unit for Covid-19 cases on July 29, 2020.
“This will be SBMA’S contribution to this national effort,” Eisma said.
She added that with the operation of the Covid-19 wellness center at Cubi, the SBMA has been granted its request that a dedicated number of beds will be allotted for Subic Freeport stakeholders, including residents, business locators and SBMA employees.
“Tulong-tulong tayo rito [We will help each other in this project],” Eisma also said.