ILOILO City – The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) already received the fund for the construction of this city’s modular hospital from the Department of Budget and Management.
This was confirmed by Public Works secretary Mark Villar to Mayor Jerry Treñas over the weekend.
The Department of Health (DOH) earlier approved the creation of the modular hospital in Barangay Sooc, Arevalo district.
Treñas thanked the national government for granting his request.
“The modular field hospital will now be implemented by the DPWH. Hopefully this will give us more beds to decongest our hospitals. Thank you very much,” said Treñas.
Treñas said the modular hospital would “enhance our service”.
“Amidst the global health pandemic, our public and private hospitals are our refuge and our forefront combatants,” Treñas said.
“Recognizing the emergent swamping of patients reaching our hospital utilization to high risk, the establishment of modular hospitals catering to mild and moderate cases becomes an essential initiative to give aid to our healthcare system on the verge of collapse,” he added.
The modular hospital, to rise near the Sooc Quarantine Facility, will have a total of 44 beds.
Treñas said this temporary hospital seeks to address this city’s high health care utilization rate (HCUR) considering that hospitals here also cater to patients from five provinces in Panay Island.
The city government will provide logistics and human resources and has partnered with The Medical City Iloilo to manage the facility for mild to moderate cases.
An additional 32-bed isolation facility will also be built in front of the existing one, said Treñas./PN
