City speeds up demolition of old hospital

CEBU, Philippines - The demolition of the Cebu City Medical Center is now being fast-tracked for the immediate construction of a 1,000-bed capacity hospital and integrated command center.

CCMC ad hoc committee head Councilor Mary Ann Delos Santos said the demolition team is now working “24/7” to attain “ground zero” before the allotted demolition timeframe of two to three months expires. 

“Everything is (happening) too fast and soon we will be constructing the first phase which is the Bureau of Fire Protection and School of Nursing building,” Delos Santos said.

The construction of the first phase will cost the city around P60 million. Delos Santos said they will be able to find sources for the said amount.

“Leave it that way…we will have sources. We already have plenty of pledges. And we are not discounting the possibility of some P200-500 million aid from the Department of Health,” she said.

Donations from “Piso Mo Hospital Ko” fund drive have now reached P13 million, said Delos Santos.

In addition, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama is also planning to submit a supplemental budget to the local budget and finance office amounting to P85 million to help finance the total cost of construction which is pegged at around P1.5 billion.

The supplemental budget will be sourced out from the continuing appropriations from 2009 up to the present.

Meanwhile, although the demolition will take two to three months, the approval of the site development plan is still pending at the City Council.

“Nag-fine tuning nalang, and the architect is doing a little finishing of the site development plan,” she added.

The demolition of the 45-year-old city-run hospital and the subsequent establishment of a new one is due to the major damages it obtained after the 7.2-magnitude earthquake jolted Cebu and Bohol last Oct. 15.

The new five-storey CCMC building would be constructed on the 4,000-square meter lot where the old structure stands.

According to the plan, the new CCMC building’s ground floor will be occupied by revenue-generating offices, the emergency room, the out-patient department, lavatories, dialysis and diagnosis rooms and the dietary department.

The second floor will house the surgical Intensive Care Units, CT scan, doctor’s clinic (dental, aesthetic, ENT), operating room, doctor’s lounge, delivery and laboratory rooms, ICU rooms, budgeting and finance offices.

The third to fifth floors will be utilized as private rooms and wards. There will be 34 private beds and at least 80 ward beds, 12-bed emergency units and corresponding nurse stations.

A chapel would also be built on top of the dietary center.  — (FREEMAN)