FORMERLY ‘OSMAK 2’ The proposed Makati Life Medical Center, formerly Ospital ng Makati 2, pictured in this artistic rendering, will have a 360-bed capacity and 192 doctors’ clinics. —PHOTOS COURTESY OF LIFE NURTURE INC.
The developer of the country’s biggest public-private partnership (PPP) hospital on Wednesday signed an agreement with state-owned and private banks on a P5-billion syndicated loan needed to complete the Makati Life Medical Center, formerly known as Ospital ng Makati (OsMak) 2.
Life Nurture Inc. (LNI), the private sector partner of the city government of Makati for the development of the state-of-the-art hospital, will get P2.5 billion from the state-owned Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), P2 billion from the government-run Land Bank of the Philippines, and P500 million from the Aboitiz-led Union Bank of the Philippines.
LNI president Dr. Dennis Sta. Ana and Makati Life chair Dr. Andrew Prieto led the contract signing with DBP senior vice president Paul Lazaro, Landbank executive vice president Carel Halog and UnionBank vice president Rosma Auza.
Makati City Mayor Abby Binay, who witnessed the loan signing, said OsMak 2 had been the biggest challenge she faced since she assumed office in 2016.
“(The project) always gets delayed … I was ready to give up but fortunately I waited and now, the outcome is great because the hospital will look better,” she said.
EQUIPMENT DEAL Makati Life Medical Center chair Dr. Andrew Prieto, Life Nurture Inc. president Dr. Dennis Sta. Ana, Basemed Kare president Bernadette Zapanta, and Makati Life chief medical officer Brian Cabral sign a deal to acquire diagnostic and imaging equipment for the future hospital. —PHOTO COURTESY OF LIFE NURTURE INC.
Redesign
In April 2021, the city government finalized the joint venture with LNI for the redesigning, retrofitting and construction of Makati Life in Malugay Street.
It will have a 360-bed capacity and more than 190 doctor’s clinics focusing on prevention, treatment and rehabilitation services for the citizens of Makati as well as private patients.
Equipped with state-of-the-art technology, Makati Life is set to start partial commercial operations with the opening of a 24/7 primary and urgent care facility within the first half of 2022 and start in-patient services with the first 100 beds toward the end of the year.
The second phase, including the launch of the Cardiac Center and operation of 200 beds, is targeted by the first half of 2023, while full completion with the cancer and wellness centers is scheduled in early 2024.
Indigent care
“Makati Life will be an inclusive hospital. It will expand Makati City’s platform for delivering social health care through the Yellow Card program. In partnership with the city government of Makati, we will provide the required level of treatment and care even to patients who can’t afford it, giving everyone a chance to attain better quality of life,” Sta. Ana committed.
With lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, he said Makati Life would address the need for increased capacity and improvements in capability of health-care facilities in Makati City.
Room for more
He added that Makati Life aimed to be a Level 2 hospital, offering state-of-the-art facilities and medical services, comparable with Makati Medical Center and St. Luke’s Bonifacio Global City.
“For a business district as densely populated as Makati, with over 600,000 residents and about five million daytime population, there are currently only two major hospitals. There is definitely room for one more and Makati Life is designed to stay relevant and future-ready,” Sta. Ana stressed.
“As we move forward, we will strive to build and operate a hospital that will remain true to the principle of sustainable delivery of innovative and inclusive health-care solutions. Makati Life is going to be a holistic health-care facility,” Sta. Ana said.
Together with cofounders construction magnate William Scheirman, who also sits as LNI chair, and medical internist and entrepreneur Dr. Randy Talamayan, Sta. Ana said LNI hoped to replicate the project in other parts of the country in the future.
“Our dream for LNI is to be a trailblazer in hospital PPPs. We’re honored to have Makati Life as our flagship project. We hope to tweak and replicate the model in other cities and municipalities across the nation. We believe that hospital PPPs are timely and necessary for inclusive progress in our country’s health-care sector,” Scheirman said.