Japan, Phl launch P594-million upgrade of Aurora hospital

BALER, Aurora Philippines  – Amid the devastation caused by a killer earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the Philippine and Japanese governments through the latter’s Japan International Cooperation Agency, have launched the P594 million upgrading project of the Aurora Memorial Hospital in this capital town aimed at fortifying the medical referral system and the qualitative improvement of medical services in the province.

The grant-in-aid project was launched following recent ground-breaking ceremonies at the AMH’s 3.8-hectare project site in Barangay Reserva here.

Sen. Edgardo Angara, who initiated the project with Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara, Gov. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo and Japanese Ambassador Makoto Katsura, said the hospital upgrading – aside from improving the AMH’s infrastructure and equipment – would also facilitate it as a general hospital playing a central role in the local health referral system.

Aside from Katsura, also gracing the ground-breaking rites were JICA chief representative Norio Matsuda, Japanese embassy First Secretary Takeshi Sakata and Health Secretary Enrique Ona among others.

The hospital upgrade will be completed in December 2011. It was funded through a P509 million grant from the Japanese government and P85 million in counterpart funding from the provincial government.

Angara, who donated the land for the new building, said the common goal of the Japanese and Philippine governments is to prioritize human development projects in the province. “Because of Japan’s generosity, our hospital will be one of the most advanced in the region in terms of equipment and facilities. They have gone beyond the usual land grants or donations for the basic structure, they have instead chosen to build a fully equipped hospital in our humble but deserving municipality,” he said.  

Among the structures to be put up in the project site are administration, emergency and operation and delivery buildings, 50-bed capacity ward buildings, service building, and ancillary buildings such a guardhouse, mortuary and others.

Angara said the 70-year-old memorial hospital will also be provided with state-of-the-art equipment such as dental, physical therapy and radiology equipment – x-ray system, automatic x-ray film processor and ultrasound machine for general examination; laboratory equipment (hematology analyzer and autopsy table), central supply and sterilization room equipment and equipment for the ward such as infant warmer and mechanical ventilator.

With upgraded facilities, the AMH would be able to confine 800 more patients per year without transferring them to other provinces, thus lessening the financial burden on them.

It would also increase by nearly twice the total patient-days confined from the present 7,700 patient-days to 13,000 patient-days.

In the process, the AMH would also be used as the training institution for the midwifery and nursing students from the University of the Philippines School of Health Sciences in the province.