THE Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC) is aiming to accommodate more patients as soon as the bill filed by Baguio Representative Mark Go gets approved in the Congress.
Ricardo Ruñez Jr., medical director of BGHMC, lauded the congressman’s move considering the need due to the increasing clientele of the hospital.
On April 19, Go filed House Bill 5442, which seeks to increase the bed capacity of BGHMC from 500 to 800.
The House Committee on Health, chaired by Representative Angelina Tan, passed the bill after unanimous approval from its members.
The BGHMC is a tertiary government hospital serving residents from this city, Benguet and other parts of the Cordillera including patients from as far as Cagayan Valley, Ilocos provinces, Pangasinan, and Central Luzon.
Ruñez said aside from the 500 authorized bed capacity, BGHMC gets an average of 139 percent occupancy rate.
In 2016, there were 300,000 outpatients attended to by the hospital. On the first quarter of this year, the hospital already recorded 40,000 in-patients.
At present, BGHMC operates on a P1 billion annual budget.
“We have submitted a proposed budget of P2 billion for 2018, which will cover the expenses needed once the bill is approved by Congress,” Ruñez said.
Ruñez added the increase in budget will prevent draining the resources of the hospital which handles all major and minor illnesses. (PNA)