THE Senate unanimously approved on third and final reading the proposed House Bill (HB) No. 6731 establishing the Bacolod City General Hospital.
Bacolod City Lone District Representative Greg Gasataya said the bill, which he authored and its counterpart, Senate Bill No. 1647, filed by Senator Miguel Zubiri, have been approved in the Senate on third and final reading Monday, May 31, 2021.
He said 23 senators voted in favor of HB No. 6731 establishing the Bacolod City General Hospital.
"The long wait is over. It's a big blessing for the people of Bacolod. We are very happy about the approval of our bill. Nothing is impossible, we bring back all the glory to God," he added.
Gasataya expressed his gratitude to the members of the Senate led by its President Senator Vicente Sotto, Senate Majority Leader Senator Zubiri, Committee on health Chairman Senator Christopher Lawrence Go, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, Health Secretary Francisco Duque, and the Department of Health (DOH), House Committee on Health Chairperson Representative Angelina Tan, and the local government unit of Bacolod City for the support of this legislation.
Gasataya said the Senate allotted a budget of P600 million for the establishment of the Bacolod City District Hospital to be included in the 2022 General Appropriations Act under the Health Facilities Enhancement Program of the DOH.
"As someone who has firsthand experience of how difficult it is to have a sick family member and barely have means to pay for hospitalization, I understand our need to better public healthcare. This is why we made healthcare and medical assistance our priority in Congress," he said.
Gasataya noted that under the guidelines of the DOH, a tertiary general hospital offers services such as family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, emergency services, outpatient services, and ancillary and support services such as clinical laboratory, imaging facility, and pharmacy.
Along with these facilities, physical medicine and rehabilitation unit, ambulatory surgical clinic, dialysis clinic, tertiary clinic laboratory with histopathology, blood bank, and third-level X-ray may also be included.
