IMSS Bahía de Banderas Hospital open for patients with COVID-19

The General Director of the IMSS (Mexican Institute of Social Security) and the Governor of Nayarit supervised HGZ Nº33 in Bahía de Banderas

• IMSS General Director, Zoé Robledo highlighted the coordinated work between federal authorities and the government of Nayarit.
• Antonio Echevarría García thanked the IMSS and the federal government for taking steps to ensure that this hospital cares for and saves the lives of patients with COVID-19.
• They toured the access filter, emergency department, heliport and areas of hospital expansion.

The IMSS General Director, Zoé Robledo, and the Governor of Nayarit, Antonio Echevarría García, supervised the General Hospital of Zone (HGZ) Nº33, in Bahía de Banderas, which is one of the 184 hospital units of reconversion to provide care to patients with COVID-19.

During this visit to Nayarit, Zoé Robledo and Antonio Echevarría toured different areas of the hospital: as the access filter, emergency department where patients with coronavirus or suspected patients will arrive, as well as the heliport and areas of hospital expansion.

The IMSS Director highlighted the coordinated work between federal authorities and the government of Nayarit. He pointed out that facing the health emergency due to COVID-19, it was decided to accelerate the opening of this hospital to receive critically ill patients with this disease.

Explained that the HGZ Nº33 has 144 beds, in the Emergency area it will have 24 beds with a mechanical respirator. “It will be a fundamental part of Phase III, for the expansion of our services, of course for Nayarit, Bahía de Banderas, as well as for Puerto Vallarta.”

Also said that the hospital will have a tireless and intense battle to save lives, “that is why we wanted to be here today and come to greet the medical staff, to thank them for all their work, their dedication, commitment and to tell them that we are in the fundamental task to equip them with Personal Protective Equipment”.

The entity’s governor, Antonio Echevarría García, thanked the IMSS and the federal government for the efforts made by this hospital to attend and save the lives of patients with COVID-19.

“He pointed out that we must take care of ourselves, be at home and protect ourselves with hygiene and cleaning measures”.

For his part, the director of Medical Benefits, Víctor Hugo Borja, indicated that the IMSS is prepared to receive in the coming weeks the largest number of patients who will need hospital care and intensive therapy with the use of a mechanical respirator.

To face the pandemic, “we are preparing 184 hospitals that will receive COVID patients, of those 29 will be exclusively COVID, as in this hospital, patients will have a specific area.”

“We have hospitals in some places that we call mixed, with separate areas in order to continue serving the population with other conditions,” he said.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Puerto Vallarta, Arturo Dávalos Peña, expressed his appreciation for the empowerment of this hospital unit, which in this way “gives us certainty that things are being done in the country and in every state.”

For his part, the mayor of Bahía de Banderas, Jaime Cuevas Tello, offered his support to work together with the federal government to carry out this emergency and do his part with the indications set by the directive of the Federation, the state and the health sector.

In his message, the director of the General Hospital of Zone Nº33, Roberto Robles Godínez explained that this unit will provide medical services to the northern area of Jalisco, and southern Nayarit. At the same time, it prepares to attend to the beneficiaries who so require it and to health workers to avoid any contagion.

This tour of the HGZ 33 in Bahía de Banderas was also attended by the Heads of the IMSS Representation Offices in Nayarit, Jalisco and Colima, Jorge Martínez Torres, Edith Bermúdez Alonzo and Edgar Javán Vargas Salazar, respectively, and the Director of Administration, José Antonio Olivares Godínez.