In yet another milestone in Manila’s healthcare program, the city government led by Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada last week unveiled a fully-renovated and modernized Ospital ng Maynila Medical Center, one of the city’s six public hospitals.
Through the P300 million fund allotted by Estrada, OMMC is now comparable to modern and fully equipped government hospitals in Singapore, according to hospital director Dr. Rachel Marinas.
“Yes, we’re a public hospital built for indigent patients. But with the improvements introduced by Mayor Estrada, we’re now like a private hospital, and we can even compare our hospital to public hospitals in Singapore, which has some of the best healthcare in the world,” Marinas said.
Dra. Loi Ejercito, who represented her husband during the hospital’s blessing on Wednesday—part of the week-long celebration of the 446th Araw ng Maynila on June 24 – expressed amazement by the OMMC’s complete transformation.
“Namangha ako sa ganda ng ospital niyo,” Ejercito said. “Alam niyo naman si Mayor, ‘pag nagpa-repair ‘yun, talagang maganda. Napakaganda po.”
She said this is Estrada’s “gift” to poor Manileños who could not afford quality healthcare services that are normally expensive in private-run hospitals: “Ang gusto niya, kung anong meron ang mga mayayaman, meron din ang mahihirap.”
Built in 1969 during the time of Mayor Arsenio Lacson, the 300-bed OMMC has undergone complete facelift under Estrada – new building and lobby, new Operating Room complex, surgery, and ICU wards, and modernized Medicine, Ophthalmology, and Pediatrics departments.
The hospital also procured brand-new, state-of-the art medical and laboratory equipment such ECG machines, 2D echo machine, evoke otoacoustic emission machine, biological refrigerator, phacoemulsification machine, morgue freezer, video laryngoscope, fully automated hematology analyzer, coagulated analyzer, chemistry analyzer, digital flouroscopy and x-ray machines, among others.
Marinas said all these equipment and medical services are free of charge to every Manileño.
“Walang bayad, ang ganda pa. Kahit ‘yung mga X-ray, MRI, walang bayad, lahat. We are lucky to have a mayor like Mayor Estrada. And we have the best and competent doctors and medical staff here,” she added.
When he assumed office in 2013, Estrada initiated a P500-million rehabilitation of all the six city-run hospitals and 59 community health centers, including the acquisition of a long line of state-of-the art hospital equipment and facilities.
One of the six hospitals, Justice Jose Abad Santos General Hospital, has already been ISO-certified recently. The other city-run hospitals are Sta. Ana Hospital, Ospital ng Tondo, Ospital ng Sampaloc, Ospital ng Maynila Medical Center, and Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center (GABMMC).
On November 2016, Estrada acquired a P36-million state-of-the-art CT scan machine for GABMMC, the latest addition to the long list of brand new medical equipment he has recently purchased to modernize the six public hospitals of the city.
On April of the same year, the city government acquired a P117-million MRI machine for the Ospital ng Maynila on top of more brand new CT scans and digital X-ray machines.
Estrada also put up a dialysis center and an Eye Care Center at GABMMC recently.