BAGUIO CITY – The Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC) was identified by the health department as one of the expansion areas for the put up of state-of-the-art health facilities to help decongest the overcrowded hospitals in Metro Manila and allow the maximum use of existing tertiary hospitals for medical purposes.
Dr. Ricardo Ruñez, BGHMC medical center chief, said included in the hospital’s master development plan will be the put up of an 8-storey heart center, a 6-storey trauma center and a 6-storey brain center within the next years.
Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte announced his plan to improve the tertiary hospitals in the different urban centers in the country for them to cater to the complicated medical requirements of patients seeking medical attention so as not to contribute in the clogging of hospitals in Metro Manila.
“We are grateful that BGH was chosen by the health department as one of the beneficiaries of the government’s plan to improve the facilities to cater to the medical needs of people not only from the city but also from other parts of Northern Luzon considering that it is a tertiary hospital,” Ruñez stressed.
The BGHMC head underscored part of the buildings that will be constructed will be the provision for underground parking to help address the parking needs of patients and visitors seeking medical attention from the facility.
According to him, part of the development of the BGH structures will be the conversion of the buildings into green buildings to make the facilities a treatment haven for patients seeking treatment from specialists in the said hospital.
Considering that BGHMC is a heritage area, the BGH official assured that the park and garden in front of the hospital will not be affected by whatever development introduced to convert it as one of the state-of-the-art hospitals in the country in the future considering that it will serve as a buffer zone of the facility.
He explained the operation of the three major facilities that will be located in the hospital will be towards the end of the term of the President as the budgetary requirements for the construction of the buildings and the purchase of the required units of equipment has been programmed for the next three years.
Another salient aspect of the planned development of BGHMC is the proposed expansion of its bed capacity from 500 beds to at least 1,200 beds in the coming years to accommodate the rapidly increasing number of patients seeking medical attention from the tertiary hospital in the city.
He expressed his gratitude to the members of the local legislative body for passing a resolution supporting the planned BGH development that will include the provision for the construction of multi-level parking structures and underground parking facilities for their new buildings that will be equitably spread in the different parts of the compound.
At present, BGH always exceeds its bed capacity by as much as 20 to 30 percent depending on the illnesses whose treatments are being sought from the hospital.
By Dexter A. See
