Metro Pacific Hospitals Scale Up Anti-covid Efforts

Lourdes Hospital is designated as the Group’s COVID-19 referral facility

MANILA, Philippines, 25th March 2020 – The Metro Pacific Hospital Group is stepping up its efforts to help contain the COVID-19 pandemic in cooperation with key government hospitals.

After a series of meetings earlier this week, officials of the 12-member hospital group led by Metro Pacific Investment Corporation Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan created a Task Force to coordinate its activities to cope with the rising number of people infected by COVID-19.

Atty. Pilar Nenuca P. Almira, who currently heads both the Cardinal Santos Medical Center and the Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, was appointed head of the Task Force.

“The country’s entire health care system faces an unprecedented challenge because of the ongoing pandemic.  On the part of the MPIC hospital group, we are trying to focus our resources on the key areas of concern – particularly hospital care for the most critically-ill patients infected by COVID-19,” Pangilinan said.

Among the key decisions arrived at during the meeting, and also in consultation with the Sisters of the Holy Spirit who own the hospital, was the designation of Lourdes Hospital in Sta Mesa Manila as the hospital group’s referral facility for COVID-19 cases.   This will make about 200 beds available for this purpose.

“In line with this, the other members of the MPIC hospital group and the entire MVP Group of Companies will provide support to Lourdes Hospital by deploying health care personnel, providing supplies like alcohol, personal protective equipment (PPEs), communications support, and equipment such as ventilators,” said Augusto P. Palisoc Jr., President and CEO of Metro Pacific Hospitals.

“By designating Lourdes Hospital as the referral facility for COVID-19 cases, we are aligning our efforts with the decision of the government to select key government hospitals that will focus on handling such cases,” said Atty. Almira.

Another decision taken was for the other hospitals in the group to review their respective spaces, personnel complement and technical resources so that they can double their existing capacity for COVID-19 patients to about 500-600 beds.

In addition, the group is also preparing to set up additional tent quarters for non-critical COVID cases on selected hospital grounds if such an extraordinary measure becomes necessary. 

The MPIC hospital group and other companies of the MVP Group like Roxas Holdings, MetroPac Movers Inc., and, PLDT and Smart Communications have also decided to scale up its cooperation with and assistance for key government hospitals that are focused on caring for COVID-19 patients such as the Philippine General Hospital, the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, the Philippine Genome Center, and the Lung Center of the Philippines. This includes sharing vital supplies such as alcohol, face masks, disinfectants and PPEs and communications support like hotlines, mobile phones, WiFi and other digital solutions. 

The MPIC Group together with its Foundations have also donated millions of pesos worth of virus specimen collection kits, Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), medicine, relief goods (namely food and alcohol), face masks, water supplies, as well as transportation services for medical frontliners.

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