The Department of Health has earmarked P50 million for the expansion of the Teresita Lopez Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City, Negros Occidental.
Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson yesterday said that he was informed by a senator, whom he did not yet identify, that the fund has been included in the 2021 national budget.
Lacson said that with the expansion, they intend to add more rooms and build an area for infectious diseases.
If the amount will be downloaded in the first quarter of next year, the construction is expected to start by the third quarter of the year.
“This is not a project of the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highway), but of the DOH,” Lacson said.
He also confirmed the downgrading of some provincial government-managed district hospitals to infirmaries.
However, Lacson said that they have introduced something new in the delivery of basic health services, by bringing doctors and surgeons to hospitals where they are needed most.
The provincial government is now implementing the “One Hospital System” that enabled its doctors to perform elective surgery procedures to patients needing surgical treatments in all Capitol-run hospitals.
It started last week at the Valeriano Gatuslao Memorial Hospital in Himamaylan City, where doctors have successfully performed hemorrhoidectomy, inguinal hernia repair, debridement of septic arthritis, and dilatation and curettage due to incomplete abortion and abnormal uterine bleeding.
Under the new system, a complete medical team will be deployed as scheduled to all 11 hospitals so patients need not to be referred to other hospitals.
The concept aims to bring medical services to the people as anchored on Lacson’s Abanse Negrense Priority Development Agenda. – GB
