Bigger, better hospital eyed for Cebu City

The new Cebu City Medical Center that will rise from N. Bacalso Avenue will have a 409 bed-capacity and would be three times bigger than the severely damaged city hospital.

In yesterday’s Cebu City Council session, Architect Miko Espina of the Espina-Perez-Espina and Associates firm said construction of the new Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) will be done in two phases to be completed in 2015.

Until then, Cebu City residents will have to make do with a temporary city hospital at the Bureau of Fire and Penology Central Visayas (BFP7) compound in the next two years.

Espina and his colleagues gave a presentation of the new city hospital and an integrated hospital/emergency service complex at the N. Bacalso Avenue area including the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) building site in yesterday’s City Council session.

The hospital building will consist of 240 beds, private rooms of 102 beds and special units including an emergency room, operating room and delivery room.

Nursing school

Phase 1 of the project to be done in the next two months starts with the demolition of the existing hospital building to clear the area.

Espina said this will allow the realignment of Panganiban Street to integrate the hospital block with the BFP and Citom compounds.

Espina said Panganiban Street will have to be realigned at the back of the new CCMC building.

Across the street is a four-story building that will accommodate BFP and the CCMC nursing school.

Phase 2 of the project will focus on the construction of a new six-story hospital building on a 4,000 sq. meter lot and a park.

Design

Once completed the city will already have a 24,000 sq. meter  hospital which is triple the size of the old hospital building.

Espina said the patients will have to be moved into the hospital to give way for the demolition of the BFP building.

The final phase of the project will focus on the integration of emergency services and the creation of a command center in the area.

Espina said their proposed command center design can  accommodate eight to 10 fire trucks.

He said the BFP building site will be converted into a medical arts building to allow the city to earn.

Revenue

Espina said the upper ground floor of the new CCMC hospital building will also be devoted for revenue generating ventures like the operation of an imaging department.

The lower ground floor will be used for the emergency room  while its second floor will be used for delivery rooms, neo-natal units, central supply units and other hospital offices.

Its third to fifth floors will have private rooms and wards.

The hospital’s integration with the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) and the Cebu City Integrated Traffic Operations Management (Citom) will be done in two phases and will be finished in 2017, he said.

Total project cost will run up to P1 billion, Espina said.

Temporary

Espina said the city would need close to P300 million to fund construction of a 409-bed capacity hospital building.

Another P700 million will be used to complete the entire hospital complex that will include the Citom, BFP and other agencies.

“For the next two years,  patients will have to stay where they are now?” Councilor Margot Osmeña asked.

Dr. Shawn Espina, a trauma surgeon of the Care CCMC movement, said the city is left with no other option but to continue  using its  temporary hospital facility.