The much anticipated state-of-the-art medical facility of the Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital (GCGMH) will soon rise in Cortes town giving Boholanos access to cutting-edge healthcare facilities, which are normally available in big cities like Manila or Cebu.
Giving the Boholanos a world-class health care facility has been one of the thrusts of the hospital management under the able stewardship of its medical center chief Dr. Mutya Kismet Macuno.
There are two (2) individuals, among others, who play a major role in this project: one is Dr Macuno and the other is First District Representative Edgar Chatto.
Macuno has been working hard to make the new state-of-the-art facility a reality.
The start of the construction of the facility is also the fulfillment of the vision of Cong. Edgar Chatto, who is an ardent supporter of the project.
In an exclusive separate telephone interview with The Bohol Tribune yesterday, Jan. 9, 2021, Macuno disclosed that the budget for Phase 1 is pegged at P1.495 billion comprising of four (4) buildings.
The budget for Phases 2, 3 and 4 will still be determined but there is already a proposal, she said.
In the same interview, Macuno said that she is driven and committed to deliver top-notch health care service to Boholanos.
The GCGMH medical center chief added that she feels “challenged and excited” at the same time with this project.
“This is a wonderful gift to the people of Bohol,” she mentioned in the short interview.
“We will work very hard that the project will be completed in the specified time of 540 days.”
The Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP) of the central office of the Department of Health (DOH) is the one supervising the implementation of the project.
“The project is a milestone and a breakthrough in health facility update of a DOH hospital in the 21st century, responsive, compassionate, with highest level of safety in a healing environment. God bless our project,” she bared in a text message sent after the interview.
Macuno disclosed that the GCGMH in Cortes is the first multi-year project of the DOH here in Bohol.
The lot where the future facility will be constructed is donated by the provincial government of Bohol to GCGMH.
Boholanos will soon experience trailblazing health care technology and specialized medical services with a touch of kindness upon the completion of the multi-billion facility located in Malayo Norte, Cortes town, according to the press release from GCGMH.
The same press release bares that Macuno and the GCGMH Executive Committee took a major step into the construction of the facility with a contract signing (with the contractor and project management team) that took place at the Metro Centre Hotel on January 6, 2021.
Macuno disclosed that the contractors of the project are Grundstein Construction and Development Corp. in joint venture with RR Encabo Construction.
The five (5) hectare lot in Cortes will host a comprehensive health care-technology campus headlined by a leading-edge 525-bed academic medical center, the province’s first multi-disciplinary behavioural sciences center and a branch of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).
Moreover, the entire campus was comprehensively designed by world-renowned architectural firms AECOM and Espina-Perez, Espina and Associates (EPEA).
The design was based on the following principles: global evidence-based health care design, wellness & patient-experience, occupational safety, environmentally-sound green design and key lessons gained from the pandemic.
The change brought about by a post-pandemic world was one of the key influences in the design of the entire project, namely decentralization and compartmentalization to comply with stringent infection control protocol, the press release mentioned.
The post-pandemic design of the hospital will be evident in in-patient areas where the typical “wards” have been converted to 6-bed multi-occupant rooms separated by privacy dividers in compliance to droplet precaution protocol; critical care units feature acuity-adaptable single-occupant patient cubicles to ensure isolation; administrative areas will be divided into smaller sections with each occupant occupying individual cubicles; and major clinical sections are designed to have independently-functioning “isolation units” that can be activated during pandemics and/or mass casualty events.
These design features will enable the GCGMH to simultaneously attend to both “contagious” and “clean” patients, simultaneously without the risk of cross-contamination.
The press release added that the construction of Phase 1 (of 4) will commence within the first quarter of this year and will include construction of two (2) buildings internally designated as Building A and Building B.
Building A is devoted to high-acuity care which includes the Emergency & Trauma Department, sixteen (16) operating rooms situated on two (2) floors and four (4) critical care units.
On the other hand, Building B will feature the Biocontainment Unit (BCU) modeled after best practices in several research and academic hospitals worldwide.
The unit will feature twenty-six (26) single-occupancy negative-pressure rooms with individual restrooms and anterooms/decontamination rooms. It is a fully independent unit with its own Biosafety Level 3 “hot laboratory”, satellite pharmacy and staff facilities which are fully compliant to international biological safety standards.
The BCU is the epitome of the DOH’s Emerging & Re-emerging Infectious Disease (EREID) program.
Building B will also feature specialized diagnostic centers for Advanced Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, Pulmonology (Sleep Studies & Bronchoscopy), and a Neurosciences Center (Neurophysiology, Epilepsy & Stroke centers).
A Heart & Vascular Center will be constructed to offer the province’s first center for invasive cardiology (catheterization laboratory) to be complemented by a fully equipped non-invasive cardiology center.
Another first for the province will be the phase-4 Nuclear Medicine facility featuring radioimmunoassay, radioactive iodine ablation therapy, a single-photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) scanner and eventually a positron emission tomography–computed tomography (PET-CT) scanner.
The succeeding phases will be implemented as follows: Phase 2 – third quarter of 2021 (Bldg. C – Ancillary Services & Offices; and Bldg. E – Behavioural Sciences Center); Phase 3 – first quarter of 2022 (Bldg. D – Children’s Hospital & Women’s Health Center); and Phase 4 – first quarter of 2023 (the regional branch of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine).
The DOH and the GCGMH do not only aim to offer leading-edge health care technology and innovation but also compassionate and holistic patient care, the press release bared.
Furthermore, Macuno said that in a 2017 town hall meeting, it was proposed that the Tagbilaran campus of GCGMH will serve as an extension of the Cortes facility once the latter is constructed.
The Tagbilaran GCGMH facility, with the completion of the Cortes facility, will provide ambulatory care of the outpatient department, eye center, and continued operation of some number the dialysis machines and minimally invasive surgeries, she bared.
For his part, Chatto said that the contractors, consultants and the team from the GCGMH visited his office in Balilihan and held a meeting there together with Mayor Lynn Iven Lim of Cortes.
Chatto said the next steps that will be taken by the project management team are the securing of the necessary clearances and permits in relation to the construction of the project.