RSA Foundation, established by San Miguel Corp. president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang, plans to build a state-of-the-art hospital on a 10-hectare property in Laguna province to help future-proof society after the pandemic era.
“I am looking at the viability if it is accessible to public transportation because if you put up a hospital, transportation is important to the ordinary employees and the patients,” Ang said in a virtual briefing.
“If transportation is easy, then I will proceed in building that right away,” he said.
Ang said he was initially looking at a different location and even purchased the property for the hospital, but it did not push through because of local government issues.
“Now, I found another property in Laguna beside Brent. The property is nice,” he said.
Ang announced in September that the hospital would help arm and better prepare the country’s health care system to deal with health crises and other local and global outliers.
The health facility, which will specialize in research on infectious diseases and providing care for ambulatory patients, will be sustainably-designed to operate efficiently during a crisis.
“This pandemic has been an eye-opener for all of us. Our health care system needs to be strengthened. For this reason, we want to help build up our country’s capability to handle future pandemics and other health crises,” Ang said.
“We envision this hospital to be resilient and adaptable. It will operate efficiently, improve health services and make health care more accessible and affordable to a greater number of Filipinos,” Ang said.
The planned facility’s focus on treating ambulatory or out patients will enable it to treat more patients from vulnerable or disadvantaged communities for sicknesses that typically won’t require hospitalization.
Ang said the hospital would also be home to a research facility that would provide support for government on public health concerns, specifically, infectious diseases.
SMC, under Ang, emerged as a leading private sector partner in COVID-19 response since the pandemic began.
It allotted P500 million out of its over P13 billion COVID-19 response package to donate to government and public and private hospitals various medical-grade personal protective gear and life-saving, capacity-building medical equipment.
Its donations of RT-PCR testing machines, fully automated RNA extraction machines and PCR test kits raised the country’s total testing capacity by 15,000 tests a day.
It is also the first major Philippine company to put up its own purpose-built RT-PCR testing laboratory and committed to testing its entire work force—some 70,000 strong, composed of employees, partners, consultants and third-party providers.
The planned hospital is part of Ang’s and SMC’s commitment to help revive the economy through crucial infrastructure projects that can immediately create jobs, stimulate economic activity and in the long-term pave the way for an inclusive post-pandemic economic recovery.