City hospital now has laundry and `cadaver’ holding rooms
THE JR Borja General Hospital (JRBGH) yesterday inaugurates another infrastructure project which addresses the absence of laundry rooms and even cadaver holding rooms.
Dr. Ramon Nery, JRBGH chief of hospital, said for a long time the laundry room of the city hospital was located near the isolation area for the persons with infectious diseases.
Because of this, Nery said some laundry workers tested positive of tuberculosis for working beside the isolation area.
Nery said he also noted the absence of cadaver holding area, which is a place for dead bodies waiting for families to claim them.
“The poor laundry area and absence of cadaver holding area were one of the main problems I saw in JRBGH, the problems that needed immediate solutions,” Nery said.
The chief of hospital said he immediately transferred the laundry room area when he took over, and built a temporary cadaver holding room.
“The risk of infection of our staff and patients using the linen, is very high, it is really a red flag area. So first thing we did is transfer it on a temporary basis, but because of the lack of budget, the temporary areas were used longer than we planned,” he added.
The buildings are worth P10 million, funded by the Department of Health, and another P1 million was allocated by the city government for the equipment inside the laundry room.
This development comes after the inauguration of the hospital’s P70 million North Wing Building, which houses the hospital’s business office, offices of the hospital’s different departments, and a modern out-patient department. It is also where the eight-bed capacity Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is located.
Modernizing the hospital is part of the City Government’s plan to make the JR Borja hospital a level II medical facility, and a hospital that will not only serve the city but the people of Northern Mindanao.
Mayor Oscar Moreno said these projects are part of the city’s effort to decongest the Northern Mindanao Medical Center.
Moreno, in his message yesterday, challenged the hospital’s personnel to do better.
“Ang inyong naandan sa gobyerno mantinir lang, kung mahimo okay lang, kung naay kakulang those are expected of the government, the problem is set aside, but now, not anymore, we will do our best to bring our services closer to the people,” he said.