PNP eyes establishment of own tertiary hospital by 2022 — Gamboa

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police will have its own tertiary hospital in two to three years time, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said Tuesday.

PNP chief Gen. Archie Gamboa said their tertiary hospital project with a P1.9 billion budget will be established at Camp Panopio in Quezon City.

To date, he said P300 million worth of funds has been released for the project.

“P300 million (of the P1.9-billion budget) has been released. Probably by 2022 or 2023, we will have our own V. (Victoria) Luna (Medical Center) in the PNP,” Gamboa said in a press briefing at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

Gamboa was referring to the Victoria Luna Medical Center, the tertiary hospital at Armed Forces of the Philippines which renders tertiary health care services to the military personnel and their dependents.

For now, Gamboa said police personnel with severe symptoms of COVID-19 are being sent to other hospitals instead of the PNP Health Service.

“Sabi ko nga dito sa national headquarters, wala kaming tertiary na hospital. We can only entertain a degree of symptoms. Even yung symptoms na medyo malala, we have coordination with other hospitals para dadalhin yung pasyente doon. ‘Yung capability ng hosptials namin hindi ganun ka-complicated,” the PNP chief said.

(Here at the national headquarters, we don’t have tertiary hospitals. We can only entertain a degree of symptoms. Even in critical cases, we coordinate with other hospitals to send our patients there. The capability of our hospitals is not complicated.)

The Department of Health said a tertiary care hospital has a highly-specialized critical management with appropriate clinical and nursing services.

JE