The Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH), the apex hospital or end-referral center of the Department of Health (DOH) in Negros Island Region, in Bacolod City will open a Mother and Child Building by the middle of next year.
Its establishment is part of the continuing efforts of the 100-year-old institution to strengthen maternal, neonatal, pediatric, and women’s healthcare services for patients from Negros and Siquijor.
The P163.5-million project, which commenced on June 15, is funded through the DOH Health Facilities Enhancement Program, the CLMMRH said in a statement yesterday.
Medical center chief Dr. Joan Cerrada said that as the region’s apex government hospital, the CLMMRH faces limited space or beds for patients.
“We are trying to improve our facilities one by one so that we will be able to accommodate referrals from lower-level hospitals in our region. We have finished the Emergency Department renovation. Next, we are embarking on renovating our Mother and Child Building,” she added.
The two-phase construction works will take at least one year, including migration, transition, commissioning and turnover activities.
Once completed, the building will have a total capacity of 189 beds on the second and third floors.
These include 104 beds (including 90 ward beds), 12 private room beds and two isolation room beds on the second floor.
On the third floor are 85 beds, consisting of 68 ward beds, nine pediatric intensive care unit beds and eight special care unit beds.
The second floor will mainly serve post-normal and post-caesarean delivery patients, critical obstetric and gynecologic cases, and mother-and-newborn services, including kangaroo mother care for preterm or low-birth-weight infants, while the third floor will serve as the primary area for specialized obstetric, gynecologic and pediatric services.
On its 100th anniversary this year, CLMMRH welcomed a centennial baby, who was selected based on the first birth recorded on the hospital’s official foundation date, March 24. (PNA)