DAVAO CITY - The Davao City Public Hospital which will be located on a 3.2-hectare property inside the University of the Philippine’s-Mindanao will be a partnership between the City Government of Davao and the University of the Philippines.

Under the setup, the City Government will shoulder the funding, construction, land development, and operation of the DCPH while the UP Mindanao will provide the land.

The Davao City Public Hospital is planned to serve as a training hospital for the soon-to-be-opened UP Mindanao College of Medicine.

A Memorandum of Agreement between the LGU and UP signed on June 7, 2021, formalized the discussions between the two parties. The  MOA has a term of 25  years, after which the operation of the hospital will be turned over to UP.

In his speech UP President Atty. Danilo Concepcion recalled meeting city government officials when he visited Davao City to inaugurate the stadium of the Davao City Sports Complex located inside the UP Mindanao campus.

In their meeting then Mayor Sara Duterte revealed the city was interested in putting up a city-owned public hospital.

He initially broached a Harvard Medical School- Massachusetts General Hospital model where the State of Massachusetts owns the hospital. "Pero ang nagbibigay ng direction doon sa operation ng Massachusetts General Hospital ay ang Harvard College of Medicine," Atty. Danilo Concepcion recalls telling Mayor (now Vice President) Sara Duterte.

When he learned that then City Councilor Joselle Villafuerte who authored a proposed ordinance for a city-owned hospital in 2018 and the project proponents were looking for a property for the hospital he said the hospital can be put up inside the UP Mindanao campus.

“Ang sabi nila sir, wala kaming lupa kung saan itatayo ang hospital ang sabi ko ka naman sapagkat ito ay magiging teaching hospital ng college of medicine ng UP Mindanao pwede ito itayo sa campus ng UP Mindanao,” (They said, sir we have no land where to put the hospital, I said since this will be a teaching hospital of the college of medicine of UP Mindanao, we can put it here in the campus),” Concepcion said.

The hospital secured an initial P250 million from the local government budget which was augmented by a P1.5 billion fund from the Philippine Amusements and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).

According to former City Councilor Joselle Villafuerte, the author of the Davao City Public Hospital Ordinance, the LGU-owned medical facility will initially be a 100-bed Level 1 hospital with internal medicine, surgery, Ob-Gyn, and pediatrics services along with a working laboratory and emergency room, plus provisions for an isolation facility.

The hospital can be developed with the availability of a budget into a Level 2 and Level 3-hospital with buildings and facilities for specialties.

The treatment and care of the patients will be under the Universal Healthcare Law  “We will also offer  na lahat ng pumasok dito  na walang Philhealth bigyan kaagad ng Philhealth automatic,” Villafuerte said.

The former Councilor who used to head the City Council Committee on Health recalled that when she passed the proposed ordinance, then City Mayor Sara Duterte was very supportive of the project.

“Mabilis na, andyan na kaagad binigyan na kaagad ng P250-million  ni Mayor Sara, pinayagan na agad tayo dito, nag ocular na agad dito. Wala talaga naging problema (It was fast, we were given P250 million by Mayor Sara, we were allowed here, we immediately had an ocular there was no problem),” Villafuerte said.

Vice-Mayor Melchor Quitain who represented Mayor Sebastian Z. Duterte in the groundbreaking said with the rapid growth of Davao City, a new public hospital is very much needed to deliver public health services to Dabawenyos.

With the hospital in the city’s third district, people within this part of the City will not have to go far to the Southern Philippines Medical Center for their medical needs. (PIA/RG Alama)