• CHERYL G. CRUZ
Bacolod Mayor Alfredo “Albee” Benitez said May 16 that “a significant portion” of the 127-bed capacity Bacolod City General Hospital (BCGH) will be completed next year.
Benitez posted a video of the BCGH’s design, adding that this first hospital to be operated by the city government will feature various facilities, including a department of OB-Gyn, department of Pediatrics, department of Surgery, department of Internal Medicine;
An outpatient department, an emergency room, an operating room, an intensive care unit, a pharmacy, dental clinic, a chapel, and a diagnostic laboratory.
“We will see a significant portion of this project completed next year,” the mayor stressed, adding that his administration is “committed to enhancing healthcare services for all Bacolodnons.”
The contract for the construction of the BCGH, worth P192.48 million, in Barangay Vista Alegre, was awarded by the Department of Public Works and Highways in Region 6 to Legacy Construction Corp., a Manila-based firm in October last year.
This is for Phase 2 of the multi-million-peso project, or the main hospital building itself.
Phase 1, worth P200 million, started in September 2022, and involves the construction of a multipurpose building for various facilities, in support of the operation of the BCGH, including a morgue and a dietary building, as well as area development.
Bacolod Rep. Greg Gasataya, who is the principal author of Republic Act 11564, or the BCGH law, earlier said that the Department of Health allocated P250 million for the BCGH construction.
RA 11564, approved on June 24, 2021, seeks the establishment of the BCGH, with initial funding of P600 million in the 2022 General Appropriations Act, under the Health Facilities Enhancement Program of the DOH.
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, author of the law in the Senate, had also committed funding for the BCGH completion. | CGC
