Polymedic Medical Plaza’s new RT-PCR machine to boost Normin’s Covid-19 testing capabilities

In line with strengthening the testing capabilities of the Coronavirus disease 2019 in Northern Mindanao, the City Government of Cagayan de Oro, and the Polymedic Medical Plaza with its new reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) machine on Wednesday through a memorandum of agreement (MOA) received P500 million worth of medical and laboratory supplies equivalent to one-hundred Covid-19 testing slots.

The signing of the Memorandum of Agreement was lead by CDO Polymedic Medical Plaza President, Dr. Ruben O. Go, MD, MHA, FPAFP, City Mayor Oscar Moreno, CPMP Hospital Administrator, Josephine Goking-Go, MD, MBA and Acting City Health Officer, Dr. Lorraine Nery, RN, MD, MHA.

During the said event DOH-10 head of the infectious diseases cluster, Dr. Ian Christian Gonzales said that its department is happy with public and private initiatives such as it greatly helps in the fight of Covid-19. However, although the region has been doing great in tracing suspected Covid-19 positive individuals and treating them, it still has problems in testing he said.

“We really have difficulties in the region, particularly in testing. We started to do testing first at Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) and through the efforts of our city government, they have done so much for us to capacitate our lab at the regional office as a second testing facility where we also worked together with Polymedic in the training of their staffs. We are really happy with the partnership with the Polymedic Medical Group they have been the first hospitals who started taking in suspected cases and the first to start doing PCR testing,” he said.

“We hope that this sets an example for other local government and private hospitals to engage, because just like our national strategy by working together we can heal as one,” Dr. Gonzales concluded.

For his part, Dr. Ruben Go expressed his gratitude to the City Mayor: “The CDO Polymedic Medical Plaza realize the long road ahead resolving this pandemic issue when DOH identified CPMP as a possible testing lab we immediately allocated funds for the equipment and hired personnel after we received the DOH license, we ask our honorable mayor (Moreno) what can we do to help and support his health programs during this pandemic. So this afternoon we are all a witness of the signing of the memorandum of agreement between the city and Polymedic.”

Adding “This event shows that no matter how big or hard the challenge is as long as we share our time, effort and resources to help our government in this abnormal time, then ultimately with social distancing, wear a mask, and hand washing we will definitely overcome this pandemic,” Dr. Go concluded.

The event was also attended by City Epidemiologist, Dr. Joselito Retuya, Dr. William Bernardo, City Health Insurance Officer, committee on health and health insurance chair, Councilors Ma. Lourdes S. Gaane, DOH-10 head of the infectious diseases cluster, and Dr. Ian Christian Gonzales.

City Mayor Oscar Moreno during the event said that the installation of the RT-PCR facility would not only benefit Cagayan de Oro and Northern Mindanao but also other regions as well.

“The testing capacity now of Cagayan de Oro can very well serve virtually the whole upper half of Mindanao. And this is certainly very strategic, and I would like to thank everybody for making this happen. We hope the country would succeed in this battle and decisively prevail against the virus. We want to remind everybody that it is not the government that will make the winning shot, the government at best can only provide the environment but the winning goal can only be delivered by the people, and nobody else by observing the minimum health standards,” Moreno said.

The reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) according to CPMP Deputy Quality Manager, George Michael Lim said can be used to detect other viruses and disease and is not exclusive to the Coronavirus disease 2019. However, he explains that because of the pandemic the CPMP would prioritize testing for Covid-19 among others.

CPMP started its operation on July 1, and was certified on June 27 and was inspected by three major health care organizations namely the Department of Health, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and the World Health Organization to certify its laboratory as BSL 2 or BioSafety level 2.

“Mao na (BSL-2) ang requirement for PCR, and currently we are operating with one, one machine has a lot of slots to process,” Lim said.

As of the moment CPMP is authorized by the DOH to only test 78 and would cost P8,000 per test. In terms of Philhealth coverage Lim said: “Dili tanan, so ang coverage sa Philhealth natay gi tawag na criteria, so if kana na testing falls in the subgroups sa classification sa Philhealth then ma avail ang P3000 plus, but if gusto sa individual nga mo kuha dili mo cover si Philhealth sa mga personal test.”

Lim also said “Our protocol is anchored with the Department f Health, all those who would be tested would be automatically coordinated with the city health EOC, since ang agreement sa Cagayan de Oro na tanan positive will solely be catered by the Northern Mindanao Medical Center as of the moment.”

For companies who wish to avail of the test, Lim said should coordinate with the City Health so that they would be guided, and clearance from their company that they wish to be tested.

For more information visit the CDO Polymedic Medical Plaza Facebook page or contact them through the following numbers 858-5241 (Local: 188); 0933-812-3526; and 0917-324-0081.