THE House of Representatives approved on its third and final reading on Tuesday, January 29, House Bill 8835 that seeks to increase the bed capacity of the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) from 400 to 1,000.
The proposed bill was authored by Bacolod City Representative Greg Gasataya.
Gasataya said the CLMMRH is a tertiary teaching-training hospital located at Lacson-Burgos Streets in Bacolod City.
He said the 10 departments are accredited by their respective societies such as general surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, anesthesiology, otolaryngology-head and neck surgery, orthopedics and traumatology, ophthalmology, laboratory, diagnostic imaging, and radiologic sciences.
“It serves as the sole and referral and premiere tertiary government hospital that offers specialized medical care in Bacolod City, the entire province of Negros Occidental and neighboring provinces within the Western Visayas region,” he added.
Founded on March 24, 1926 with only a 25-bed capacity, Gasataya said the CLMMRH gradually increased its bed capacity until January 21, 1981, when the last law increasing its bet capacity to 400 Batas Pambansa Blg. 118, was enacted.
He said despite the vast population growth within the City of Bacolod and the Western Visayas Region since 1981, the CLMMRH capacity and personnel are yet to be adjusted accordingly.
“I thank the House of Representatives for approving our bill. We filed this to address our health concerns,” he added.
Gasataya disclosed that the bill will be forwarded to the Senate for its approval.
CLMMRH medical center Chief Dr. Julius Drilon earlier said on October 14 to 16, 2018, the CLMMRH reported an average of 835 admitted patients per day.
The hospital’s bed capacity is only 400 beds. However, it has been constantly accepting patients from various districts of Negros Occidental including Bacolod City which has the highest number of referrals for obstetrics and gynecology cases.
The hospital said it created “overcrowding” in all areas which affected the healthcare service delivery of its departments.
“Bed sharing of two to four patients can be observed in the different wards of the hospital. Such increase in the number of admitted patients has a great impact on the financials of the institution as it doubles its expenditures even though the allocated budget for CLMMRH is only for 400-bed capacity,” Drilon said.
He said they are exhausting all measures to address this perennial issue which includes appealing to the central government to qualify the hospital as a 1,000-bed capacity with its corresponding budget allocation.