CCMC’s new Ward Section. | Dyrecka Letigio
CEBU CITY, Philippines — A month after the second and third floors of the new Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) building have been inaugurated, patients will finally occupy the empty wards.
CCMC Administrator, Yvonne Feliciano, confirmed to CDN Digital that they will have transferred many of the equipment and furniture from the temporary building to the two floors.
This means that doctors and other staff can already man the two floors and the non-COVID-19 patients will follow.
Vice Mayor Michael Rama had promised that patients will already be accommodated in the two floors by September 18, 2021, as he instructed the Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW) to complete the two floors before then.
“Nagtransfer nalang mig hinay-hinay sa digital X-ray, ultrasound, kay siempre dili man na madali,” said Feliciano in a phone interview on Friday, September 17, 2021.
As promised, 200 beds are ready to be occupied by patients from the temporary facility.
Only non-COVID patients will be accommodated in the new building as the temporary building across the street will be transformed into a dedicated COVID-19 facility.
This was the plan of Rama to increase bed space for COVID-19 patients in the CCMC so that more patients suffering moderate to severe forms of the virus can be treated at the city’s hospital.
Currently, only 50 beds are dedicated to COVID-19 but with the transfer of non-COVID-19 patients to the new building, CCMC can now accommodate 150 COVID-19 patients then.
The Cebu City government has been trying to decongest the other major hospitals in the city following the surge last August 2021, although the cases now have significantly dropped.
The CCMC will hold a grand opening at 5 p.m. on Saturday, September 18, 2021, to mark the transfer of patients.
There are still seven floors uncompleted in the new building, but the city government has already allotted around P1.2 billion for its completion in the last supplemental budget. /rcg
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