Manila plans to set up Covid hospital
Those with mild and moderate symptoms will be placed in the field hospital, while those under severe and critical conditions will be accommodated in city hospitals
Manila Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso is eyeing the construction of an exclusive hospital for Covid-19 patients with mild and moderate symptoms in an effort to declog the six city-run hospitals.
This will allow the conversion of all available rooms at these hospitals into intensive care units for patients with severe and critical conditions.
Mayor Domagoso said the city’s seventh hospital, which will be called the Manila Covid-19 Field Hospital, will sit on a 2.6-hectare lot at the Rizal Park and will have 336 beds for Covid patients who are diagnosed to be mild and moderate cases.
On Saturday, the mayor and Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna personally visited the site of the field hospital, which will be made up of containers that will be converted into hospital rooms.
It will be built at Burnham Green, just right across the Quirino Grandstand and fronting the road that serves as a parade ground during national events. It is also where the city government’s free drive-thru swabbing center is located.
When the time comes that the field hospital is no longer needed, it will be dismantled and the space be returned as Burnham Green.
The mayor and vice mayor brainstormed with city engineer Armand Andres, city architect Pepito Balmoris and other concerned city officials to polish plans and everything that will be needed for the new hospital.
Andres said the mayor wanted the work to be done round-the-clock, stressing that time is of the essence.
Domagoso lamented reports that some patients die in tents and even in parking lots due to the inevitable congestion in hospitals amid the recent overwhelming surge in coronavirus cases.
He said he and Lacuna met with key officials to address another reported impending surge of coronavirus cases in the months to come, and vowed the field hospital will be complete with all the needed facilities.
Under the plan, while all asymptomatic patients will be made to stay at the city’s quarantine facilities, those with mild and moderate symptoms will be placed in the field hospital, while those under severe and critical conditions will be accommodated in city hospitals.
The mayor said he copied the idea from what was done in Italy, where the architect made the concept “open source,” so it can be duplicated elsewhere.
He added that he and Lacuna also met with Philippine General Hospital officials, led by its director Dr. Gerardo “Gap” Legaspi, to consult them on the matter.
He added the field hospital will be complete with ambulances, proper equipment and medical frontliners, considering those with moderate symptoms still face the possibility of progressing to severe cases.
“We need to build a Covid-19 hospital because as time passes and if the pandemic does not end, it could take a long time and many will probably die here,” Domagoso warned.