The University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) recently acquired advanced diagnostic equipment and critical care facilities that empower it to provide indigent Filipinos with free healthcare access at the country’s largest tertiary hospital.
The hospital inaugurated a combined imaging capability in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Computed Tomography (CT)—better known as PET-CT scan equipment. This ensures more comprehensive diagnostics.
In addition, a new centralized intensive care unit is now capable of accommodating 32 patients at a time and a 128-slice CT Scan.
All of these developments form part of the long-term master plan of UP-PGH, which currently provides a wide range of healthcare services to over 700,000 patients annually while serving as the premier institution in training future healthcare professionals.
UP-PGH Director Dr. Gerardo Legaspi acknowledged the long four-year wait for the first-ever PET-CT scan facility to be procured by the Philippine government.
“But now that it’s here, we have leveled the field for poor patients, who will be using this machine 80 percent of the time versus 20 percent for paying patients,” Legaspi said.
“We need this machine badly because it has become central to the diagnosis of cancer, a major concern of our healthcare system,” he added.
PET-CT scan procedures can accommodate up to eight patients a day presently at UP-PGH and will be scaled up to 15 once operations become more regular.
Meanwhile, the hospital is coordinating with the Department of Health (DOH) on how to make the service available to non-PGH patients. Health Department personnel will also be trained on its use alongside doctors under the UP-PGH residency program, as its facility will be operated in collaboration with specialists and experts from other hospitals.
Legaspi said the new equipment allows UP-PGH to do medical procedures that are otherwise unavailable or expensive to obtain from private hospitals. He thanked the Philippine government for its continuing attention to UP-PGH, with the hospital’s P7.72-billion outlay in 2024 comprising a third of the total amount allocated to the country’s premier state university.