New cancer center at UP-PGH ‘first of many’ specialty hospitals

HIGH-TECH TREATMENT | A new cancer center will rise at the Philippine General Hospital in Manila, which will be equipped with the latest technologies in cancer detection and treatment. (FILE PHOTO)

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Sunday said the new cancer center to be constructed at the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital in Manila is a “first of many” that the Marcos administration is planning to set up throughout the country.

National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon, in a Palace statement, said the establishment of “regional specialty hospitals,” which is provided in the 2023-28 Philippine Development Plan (PDP) that President Marcos approved last week, shows the administration’s commitment to prioritizing Filipinos’ health-care needs.

“The message is good, that we are really prioritizing health; so this will be the first of many, I hope,” Edillon said.

“What we really wanted are regional specialty hospitals and we put that in the PDP. So that our countrymen from faraway provinces need not go all the way to [Metro] Manila [for their medical needs],” she added.

The Neda board, which the president chairs, recently approved seven high-impact projects during its third meeting last Thursday. This included the P6-billion, 300-bed capacity UP-PGH Cancer Center, which is the first private-public partnership under the administration.

According to Neda, the projects will contribute to achieving the administration’s social and economic transformation goal in the medium term.

UP-PGH officials said that with the construction of the cancer center, the country could have a bigger and wider facility that will cater to the needs of cancer patients.

Once the center becomes operational, medical professionals also will have access to new technologies that can aid them in cancer detection and treatment.