MANILA – The creation of the Bacolod City General Hospital is being pushed by Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri.
His Senate Bill (SB) 1647, which was received by the Senate’s Office of the Secretary on July 1, is the counterpart of House Bill 6731 authored by Bacolod City Lone District Representative Greg Gasataya and passed on third and final reading on June 3.
In the explanatory note, Zubiri said the hospital is “envisioned to provide health care to the people of the Lone District of Bacolod.”
Bacolod is the most populous city in Western Visayas.
He noted that the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) is currently the lone tertiary government hospital attending to the whole of Negros Occidental.
However, with only 400-bed capacity that serves a daily average of 724 patients, the CLMMRH needs to decongest its load in order to attend the needs of its growing number of patients.
“The whole province of Negros Occidental shares only one tertiary government hospital. This is unthinkable given how Bacolod City alone has a population of over half a million people,” Zubiri said.
“Thus, this measure will address the overcrowding in the said health facility and will provide the people of Bacolod City a better quality of health care services,” he added.
Gatasaya expressed his gratitude to Zubiri and Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia on July 2 for backing his efforts to give more quality and accessible health care services to Bacolodnons.
The mayor also thanked Zubiri for filling the measure.
Leonardia, in a phone call with the senator on July 2, also appealed to Zubiri to work on the maximum participation of the national government in the establishment of the hospital, along with its maintenance and operation.
“We would prefer the national government to fund much of this project because it would be burdensome for the local government. We would like to lessen the expenses of the city,” the mayor said in a statement.
In response, Zubiri assured the mayor that he would amend the bill and allocate a budget for it next year.
Section 2 of SB 1647 stated that the city government shall provide funding for the establishment, operation, and maintenance of the BCGH.
“The people of Bacolod have a right to proper health care services. I’m with them on that. I am committed not only to pushing for the passage of this bill but also to making the necessary budget allocations once it’s passed the legislative gauntlet,” Zubiri said. (With a report from PNA/PN)
