Senator lauds building of modular hospitals

As the government continues to battle the high number of new coronavirus disease cases, Sen. Bong Go praised efforts to build more “pop-up” or modular hospitals to treat severe and critical COVID-19 patients.

“I commend this initiative of the government to strengthen the capabilities of our medical facilities… We should always be prepared. We do not want to see patients dying without seeing government help,” Go said in Filipino.

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) earlier bared its plan to construct temporary treatment and monitoring facilities and off-site hospitals throughout Metro Manila to cater to the increasing number of COVID-19 infections.

Some major hospitals, like the Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon City, have already started expanding capacity using prefabricated components, allowing for faster construction.

A mega modular hospital was also planned for the National Center for Mental Health compound in Mandaluyong City as well as three-cluster units of off-site dormitories which will serve as temporary shelters for medical frontliners who service the facility.

Earlier this month, Go, who chairs the Senate committee on health and demography, attended the blessing and turnover ceremony of the Department of Health-Quezon Institute’s off-site modular hospital in Quezon City. It is an extension of the Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center and has a capacity of 110 beds.

“Let us build more of this kind of facility so we could save more Filipino lives,” Go said, citing the need to avoid a situation where people could die without the benefit of getting admitted in a hospital and taken care of by health professionals.

The senator also thanked medical frontliners all over the country for their untiring service and sacrifice, especially amid the ongoing pandemic.

“President Duterte and I thanked all the frontliners, doctors, nurses, health workers for their sacrifices during this time. You know this fight better. If we compare it to a war, you are the ones getting deployed because this is your field of expertise. Let us help our fellow Filipinos, let us not forsake them,” he said in Filipino.

The DPWH has so far completed the construction of 635 COVID-19-related health facilities in the country.