Eastern Visayas hospital opens P497-M modern main building

TACLOBAN CITY, May 22 -- The Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC) opened its PHP497-million six-storey main building in a new location, reinforcing the government’s commitment to improve health services in this poverty-stricken region.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s partner, Cielito “Honeylet” Avanceña, and Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go led the inauguration of the main building funded by the Department of Health (DOH).

Avanceña said ensuring the timely completion of the project is proof of Duterte’s love for the people of Region 8 (Eastern Visayas), who suffered the brunt of super typhoon Yolanda in 2013.

“The President was here two days after Yolanda to help the victims. He saw the dead and the suffering of victims here and it made him cry,” Avanceña told a crowd of about 500, composed of local officials and hospital staff.

Avanceña, a former nurse at the state-run Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City, commended the hospital staff for their dedication.

“Working in a government hospital is physically draining because you have to be resourceful to address all the needs of poor patients,” she said.

The opening of the main building signals the expansion of Duterte’s Malasakit Center, a one-stop shop that will provide access to government programs that extend medical financial assistance to the underprivileged, Go said.

He turned over PHP15 million to the EVRMC management for the first month of operation of the Malasakit Center. This is the second center in the Visayas after the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center opened in Cebu.

“Asking for financial assistance from different agencies is now in just one roof and you don’t have to queue since this is digital. This is to amplify President Duterte’s advocacy of streamlining government processes, especially the health services needed for the poor,” Go added.

The opening of the Malasakit Center will pave the way to make EVRMC a premier hospital in the region, he said.

The center will be manned by staff of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, DOH, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., conferring the possibility of a unified requirement system, aside from the unified, single-window application form.

The main building, which had its groundbreaking on Feb. 25, 2014, is part of the PHP2.4 billion EVRMC modernization project supported by the Bloomberry Cultural Foundation, Inc. and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The EVRMC has 353 beds and 35 cribs. With a floor area of 30,000 square meters, it was designed for 420-bed service wards and 180-bed private rooms.

In September 2017, the regional hospital opened its PHP411-million three-storey outpatient department funded by JICA. The new design features screen blocks to protect the building's openings from flying debris, windows that can withstand strong winds, a power generator, and water supply good for up to three days.

In August 2016, the DOH opened the PHP300-million four-storey Mother and Child Building built by the Bloomberry Cultural Foundation Inc. It has a 100-bed capacity facility with a floor area of 4,715 square meters.

At least eight more buildings will rise within the regional hospital complex, the DOH said.

The old EVRMC, which was damaged by “Yolanda’s” storm surge along Magsaysay Blvd., has been upgraded.

The health department said they are targeting to complete the transfer within three years.

The modernization program is expected to enhance the quality of services of the medical center, improve health outcomes, and achieve equity in access to healthcare in the region.

The EVRMC, then known as the Leyte Provincial Hospital on Jones St., first opened its doors to the public on July 16, 1916. It had an authorized bed capacity of 14.

Due to increasing demand, the hospital was relocated to Magsaysay Blvd. and a new building was constructed in 1925. In 1936, the hospital was further expanded to 40 beds and the new building was inaugurated by President Manuel L. Quezon.

In 2008, Leyte lawmakers introduced a bill that would increase the bed capacity of EVRMC, upgrading its service and facilities and professional health care, authorizing the increase of its personnel and appropriating funds. It was later signed into law on Nov. 19, 2009. (SQM/With reports from Princess Rosette Cabonegro and Chanda Mae Dialino, OJTs/PNA)