New Malabon hospital flood-free, propoor

Residents of Malabon City will soon have a flood-free hospital offering high-quality but “propoor” medical services.

This was the promise of city government officials during the recent ground-breaking ceremony at the site of the Bagong Pagamutang Bayan ng Malabon expected to be completed by early next year.

The three-story hospital will rise on a 1,880-square meter lot behind city hall, the old site of the Malabon City Jail. Construction of the facility will cost about P150 million which the city government says has already been secured.

“The best part about this project is that the city government will not have to spend anything on the construction of the hospital. The P150 million needed for the construction was provided by a grant from the Office of the Civil Defense aimed at preparing local governments to handle disasters,” said Dr. Rommel Lizan, head of the Malabon City Health Department.

The new hospital will replace the old Pagamutang Bayan ng Malabon on Dagat-Dagatan Avenue that opened in 1987. It was severely damaged by flooding brought about by heavy monsoon rains in August 2012.

The old hospital has been reopened since then, but it  provides only the most basic of services and its capacity has been overstretched over the past few years.

“Our new hospital will be able to offer better services to the public compared to the limited services we have been offering in the old hospital,” Lizan said.

He said that the planned hospital would house about 50 beds with an emergency room boasting life-saving equipment, “something which the old hospital doesn’t have,” in addition to an operating room, a delivery room, a nursery and a dedicated dialysis room.

Specialists will also offer services for dental, pediatric, OB-Gyn, internal medicine, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases. A laboratory will provide common clinical chemistry tests and an imaging department will offer X-ray and ultrasound services. Food for confined patients will be provided by a dedicated dietary service.

“We will also be building a Medical Arts Building where specialist doctors can rent rooms and spaces to set up clinics while a pharmacy will sell cheap but high-quality medicines,” Lizan said.

He added that the hospital would be geared toward serving poor residents, which was why the city government was putting a premium on its sustainability and the affordability of its services.

“We are hoping that this new hospital will be recognized by PhilHealth so that Malabon residents can just go there and present their PhilHealth cards to avail of our services,” Lizan said, referring to the government-run health insurance fund.

At the same time, he guaranteed that unlike the one-story bungalow old Pagamutang Bayan ng Malabon, the Bagong Pagamutang Bayan ng Malabon would be built on flood-free ground with a higher elevation to protect it further from possible flooding in the future.