A 200-BED capacity Children’s Institute to be built inside the Southern Philippine Medical Center (SPMC) compound will break ground this year in a bid to address the congestion rate of the pedia ward.
Doctor Michael Manalaysay, chairman of SPMC's Pediatrics Department, told the media during Monday’s weekly forum at The Annex Building, SM City Davao that as part of the hospital’s infrastructure development plan, another building for children will rise.
“We will build a Children Institute, it will be a new building. The groundbreaking will start second or third quarter of the year,” she said, adding that it will be situated at the back of SPMC.
He admitted that overcrowding has been a perennial problem inside the state-run hospital where they were even forced to allow two patients to share in one bed.
“That will help us decongest,” he added.
He also said their department is the biggest pediatric department in the Philippines in terms of size.
According to him, their daily admission is nearly 500 while 200 consultation for outpatient everyday which is equivalent to 4,000 a month. Emergency Room (ER) admissions and consultations on one hand reached 100 to 200 a day.
Aside from the overcrowding, he also cited the need for additional pediatric doctors to attend to patients.
“That’s why we need more Pediatric residents, we need 45 residents. As of this time 33 lang yong resident namin,” he said.
The building, he said, will be finished by next year or early 2020.
Asked about the budget allocated for the building, Manalaysay said that he could not provide exact amount but he said that a 100-bed capacity building alone might cost around P1 billion.