GenSan nurses augment NCR hospital front-liners

GENERAL SANTOS CITY –  At least eight nurses from this city left for the National Capital Region on Monday to augment the workforce in a major hospital in the wake of the continuing surge of Covid-19 cases.

VOLUNTEERS. Photo shows the eight nurses of the St. Elizabeth Hospital in General Santos City who volunteered for temporary deployment in the National Capital Region to augment the hospital workforce amid the increasing Covid-19 cases. The group, which flew to Manila on Monday, is the second batch of health workers from the hospital that was sent to the NCR since last year. (Photo courtesy of St. Elizabeth Hospital)

The nurses, from the St. Elizabeth Hospital here, have volunteered for temporary deployment at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City. They arrived in Manila Monday afternoon aboard a Philippine Airlines flight and and are undergoing mandatory quarantine and  online orientation before taking on their assignments.

“This is the second time in a span of one year that brave volunteers from St. Elizabeth Hospital flew to Manila to lend a hand to our sister hospitals in NCR,” the hospital management said. Eight other members of its nursing staff also volunteered for detail at the Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Manila last year.

The new volunteers are Norlaynie Abolais, Ryan Davis Cabarlo, Rex Congson, Geraldine Domanio, Elviro Firmalino Jr., Donna Lyn Juridico, Raffy Franz Manabat and Jayson Montano.

Congson said he did not hesitate to volunteer for the Manila deployment despite the risks involved because it is their sworn duty to render help to their colleagues when he joined the profession. “It is our mandate to really help whether there is a pandemic or not,” he explained.

St. Elizabeth Hospital, operated by the Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings, Inc., is one of the six referral facilities here for Covid-19 patients.