OFFICIALS of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) formally opened Friday, Jan. 25, the extension of the pediatric facility and a new ward for patients with critical conditions.
These new features of the VSMMC aim to accommodate more patients who need to avail themselves of the tertiary hospital’s services, said VSMMC medical chief Dr. Gerardo Aquino Jr.
The pediatric facility is part of the Pediatric Pavilion located at the hospital’s third floor and has 44 new beds, 22 of them cribs and the other 22 regular beds.
The new ward, Ward 3B, features 10 private rooms for patients who underwent complicated procedures such as heart transplant, kidney transplant, and brain surgery, among others.
Aquino also said another innovation, the Milk Bank, will be inaugurated next Thursday, January 31. The Milk Bank will collect and process donated breast milk from lactating mothers.
“The objective of the Milk Bank is to receive donations of milk from lactating mothers who have extra to give and a bank for those who need the milk,” Aquino said.
Those to benefit from this will be infants at the neo-natal intensive care unit who are too weak to suck due to prematurity or congenital diseases, and those whose mothers could not breastfeed due to childbirth complications.
Aquino also said the hospital will continue to have new features as facilities are being improved to meet the needs of the hospital’s increasing number of patients.
Until everything is in place, Aquino asked for the public’s consideration if they felt the services of VSMMC remained limited.
Present during the inauguration Friday were Michael Dino, presidential assistant for the Visayas, and Rep. Raul del Mar (Cebu City, north district).
Last November, the VSMMC opened an Emergency Department Complex worth P150 million to serve poor patients not only from Cebu but also from parts of Visayas and Mindanao.
Aquino cited the need to improve the emergency room because it was often congested and patients did not have beds anymore for them.
In addition to the physical improvements in the hospital, President Rodrigo Duterte last year set aside a P50-million financial assistance to the government-owned facility. (Justin K. Vestil, Kiziah Marie T. Suello, USJ-R Intern)