Senator Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada filed a measure seeking to upgrade the services and facilities of the fire-stricken Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Manila.
Estrada filed Senate Bill No. 2634 for the hiring of additional staff to complement the proposed increase of the current 1,500-bed capacity to 2,200 to accommodate more patients in the hospital.
Additional health workforce includes doctors, nurses, and support personnel, among others.
For the past decades, Estrada lamented that the country's premiere medical center has been operating beyond its capacity and dealing with overcrowding and extended patient waiting time.
These problems, he said, have affected the delivery of medical services to sick people, especially the poor and marginalized sectors in the country.
The latest health data showed that PGH serves over 600,000 patients annually.
Estrada said existing healthcare services and facilities should be aligned with the proposed bed capacity increase to further address patients’ hospital predicaments.
"Investing in people's health is important in order to provide ordinary Filipinos greater access to world-class and affordable tertiary hospital care," he stressed.
Also under SBN 2634, Estrada proposed the inclusion of the necessary amount for the implementation of the measure in the government’s annual national budget.
The measure pushed for the creation of additional new positions that “shall be determined by the PGH director in coordination with the Department of Budget and Management and the Civil Service Commission.”
