ILOILO City – The more hospitals, the better.
The Department of Health (DOH) has given the city government the go-signal to build and operate its own hospital to decongest private hospitals here.
“We already have the DOH approval and the permits,” Mayor Jerry Treñas confirmed to Panay News.
The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, he added, has underscored the need for better medical facilities in the city.
The proposed city government-run hospital to rise in Barangay San Pedro, Molo district is being envisioned as a 200-bed medical facility overlooking Esplanade 2.
Treñas said the city government will finance the construction with a P500-million loan from the state-owned Development Bank of the Philippines.
Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri also committed an additional P200 million for a proposed Medical Arts Building (doctors clinic) for the city hospital.
“This is one of our priorities to bring a much improved public healthcare service to the Ilonggos,” said Treñas.
There are currently eight private hospitals in the city – Metro Iloilo Hospital and Medical Center, Iloilo Mission Hospital, St. Paul’s Hospital Iloilo, Iloilo Doctors’ Hospital, The Medical City, AMOSUP Seamen’s Hospital, Qualimed, and Medicus Medical Center.
Iloilo City also hosts two public hospitals – the Western Visayas Medical Center and West Visayas State University Medical Center.
These 10 hospitals not only serve residents of Iloilo City but also patients from other provinces in Panay Island and nearby Guimaras Island.
When completed and becomes fully operational, the proposed city government-run hospital is expected to decongest hospitals here.
“If the current hospitals serve just residents of Iloilo City, they are enough. However, they also serve patients form other provinces,” said Treñas.
This early, said Treñas, he has started discussing with the city’s human resource department the needed hospital personnel – doctors, nurses, utility workers, etc.
Dr. Roland Jay Fortuna of the City Health Office said the city hospital is expected to start operating in around two or two and a half years from the start of construction.
The medical facility will be a Level 2 “departmentalized hospital”. It will have obstetrics-gynecology, surgery, pediatrics, and internal medicine departments. (With a report from Iloilo City PIO/PN)
