Mayor Evelio Leonardia said the city government has tapped a group to study the proposed establishment of the Bacolod City General Hospital (BCGH).
The development was announced by the mayor in a press conference with Senate Majority Leader Migz Zubiri, sponsor of the counterpart Senate Bill (SB) 1647, seeking to establish the BCGH.
“There will be so much to be done before the actual implementation. (Executive Assistant) George Zulueta has commissioned a study group at (University of St.) La Salle that will look into the nitty-gritty (of this). The idea here is to maximize funding from the national government,” Leonardia said.
He added that a memorandum of agreement still needs to be signed as part of the implementation.
“The counterpart of the city government is the land where the hospital will be built.”
Zubiri said the counterpart of the city government is the land where the hospital will be built as he assured the people of Bacolod that the city hospital will definitely become a reality.
So far, the city has not yet identified a specific site for the hospital.
The veteran legislator said he already asked the Department of Public Works and Highways to furnish him a copy of the program of works so he could push for the project’s inclusion in the General Appropriations Act for 2022.
“I commit to the people of Bacolod that we will have a hospital here…Bacolod needs a city hospital especially with what happened in the COVID-19 pandemic. That is my commitment, Mayor,” said the seasoned lawmaker who traces his roots in Bacolod and Negros Occidental.
The counterpart House Bill 6731, authored by Bacolod City Lone District Rep. Greg Gasataya, was passed on third and final reading on June 3.
On Oct. 19, the Senate committee on health and demography chaired by Senator Bong Go approved Gasataya’s bill, along with SB 1647.
Zubiri said he is waiting for Go to submit the committee report so that it could be forwarded to the Senate plenary for the second reading.
“Currently, the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital is the only tertiary government hospital that caters to the whole of Negros Occidental.”
In the explanatory note of his bill, Zubiri said the hospital is “envisioned to provide health care to the people of the Lone District of Bacolod,” noting that currently, the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) is the only tertiary government hospital that caters to the whole of Negros Occidental.
However, with only 400-bed capacity that serves a daily average of 724 patients, the CLMMRH needs to decongest its load to attend to the needs of its growing number of patients.
“Thus, this measure will address the overcrowding in the said health facility and will provide the people of Bacolod City a better quality of health care services,” he concluded.