Cebu, home to some of the region’s biggest medical facilities, has further expanded its health care industry with the opening of a new private hospital, also seen to create more jobs and increase the province’s hospital bed capacity.

The Hospital at Maayo, located in the industrial city of Mandaue, was formally launched on December 2 as a full-fledged medical facility in support of the government’s pandemic response and answers the increasing demand for health care services here due to the threat of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

“Covid-19 did accelerate our entry into the health care industry,” William Christopher Liu Jr., the hospital’s chief executive officer, said in an interview on Friday.

The hospital, owned by Cebu’s Liu family-led Primary Group of Builders, used to be an outpatient facility but has been converted into a full-fledged hospital during the pandemic, with at least 100 hospital beds.

Liu cited government authorities, particularly the Department of Health and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., for the accreditation of Maayo as a medical-grade health care facility.

The hospital employs about 200 doctors and is eyeing to grow its hospital staff, including nurses.

It offers a wide range of specialties, diagnostics, and therapeutic services to patients in Cebu, as well as the Visayas and Mindanao.

The hospital began accepting patients in late August when Cebu experienced a surge in Covid-19 cases to “help diffuse the long lines in other hospitals and emergency rooms,” said Dr. Lawrence Chad Liu, the hospital’s medical director.

With the threat of the new Omicron variant of the virus, he said they are on “red alert and on standby” for the “worst-case scenario” in case of another surge. (PNA)