SM donates P170 M for PPE, medical supplies to hospitals

MANILA, Philippines — The Sy family’s SM Group, through SM Foundation, is donating over P170 million toward the fight against COVID-19, surpassing its initial allocation of P100 million, to help ensure the protection of medical frontliners and provide much-needed supplies to over 50 hospitals nationwide.

In a statement, SM said the funding would be used to equip healthcare workers in hospitals nationwide with personal protective equipment (PPE) – full protective suits (including for ICU use), face shields, gloves, N95 masks, surgical masks, goggles, and including raincoats as requested by some hospitals as back-up alternatives.

The group said to make testing more widely available, it is supporting and donating the local Manila Healthtek test kits developed by the UP-NIH team (upon DOH approval), providing the testing needs of RITM, and donating FDA-approved PCR kits sourced from Korea.

SM said it would also be providing ICU-grade ventilators to help hospitals manage patients with severe cases.

Among the hospitals that received PPE donations as of March 27, 2020 are the following designated COVID hospitals: University of the Philippines PGH, Lung Center of the Philippines, Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), National Kidney and Transplant Institute, San Lazaro Hospital, East Avenue Medical Center, Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center, Philippine Heart Center, National Children’s Hospital and Rizal Medical Center.

Other hospitals include Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital, Chinese General Hospital, University of the East Ramon Magsaysay (UERM) Memorial Medical Center, Manila Doctors Hospital, University of Sto. Tomas Hospital, Makati Medical Center, The Medical City, Ospital ng Muntinlupa, and more.

Several shipments of PPE are also on their way to provincial hospitals nationwide, including Rizal, Pampanga, Bataan, Quezon, Pangasinan, Catanduanes,  Cebu, Iloilo, Samar, Tacloban, Surigao del Sur, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, Marawi and Zamboanga.

SM said the second batch of medical supplies and other essential medical equipment have arrived on Wednesday, April 1.

The packages will supply critical medical equipment, giving hospitals nationwide N95 masks, surgical masks, alcohol, goggles, medical gloves, PPE, raincoats, shoe covers and hygiene kits.