INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
DAVAO CITY — Construction of the 100-bed tertiary hospital funded by the city government would finally push through within the 3.2-hectare property of the University of the Philippines in Mindanao (UP Mindanao) in Mintal, city and university officials said.
The facility, which broke ground on Monday, Dec. 19, would provide healthcare and medical services to citizens in remote areas of the city’s third district and would relieve the Southern Philippines Medical Center of its load, according to UP Mindanao in a statement.
UP President Danilo Concepcion, who graced the groundbreaking, said the project was among the biggest investments the city government could make for its people, “as the necessity of good healthcare cannot be overstated,” he said.
Vice Mayor Melchor Quitain Jr., who represented the city mayor during the event, said that with the rapid growth of Davao City, a new public hospital would be needed to deliver timely and efficient public health services to the people.
“By increasing the number of medical practitioners here in Mindanao, the new hospital will also strengthen the area’s health sector, which will ultimately improve the overall quality of healthcare in the region,” said Quitain.
Conceptualized during the time of former mayor and now Vice President Sara Duterte, the facility has been among the priority projects of the current city mayor, her brother Sebastian Duterte.
The hospital has secured a P1.5-billion budget from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) and P250 million in initial funds from the city government.
In May last year, the city council also approved the Davao City Hospital Ordinance, which provided that the facility should gradually expand to become a level III training hospital for internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics-gynecology, and surgery.
The hospital will also offer emergency outpatient and laboratory services, as well as respiratory intensive care, neonatal intensive care, physical medicine, and rehabilitation and isolation units.
The city council’s approval of the ordinance led to the signing of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the city government and the country’s premier state university.
Under the agreement, the city government will operate the hospital for 25 years, after which, it will turn over the facility to the university.
“The DCPH will also serve as a teaching and training hospital with an accredited residency program for the proposed UP Mindanao medical education program. It will adopt a community-relevant curriculum and a step-ladder approach to encourage its graduates to serve in Mindanao, which will address the shortage of medical practitioners in the southern Philippines,” said a statement from UP Mindanao.