St. Luke’s unveils plan for ASEANA branch

The country’s premier and most innovative medical facility, St. Luke’s Medical Center, is on track to open its third branch, St. Luke’s ASEANA, in Pasay City, its top official said recently.

“St. Luke’s ASEANA is going to be the same size as our BGC. It’s about a 500-bed capacity. We are winding up the design phase for the ASEANA Hospital. Our target opening has shifted slightly to 2031, but the plans are already in place. It’s a go, and we are committed to that project,” said St. Luke’s President and CEO Dr. Dennis Serrano in a media roundtable last Friday night at the EDSA Shangri-La, Mandaluyong.

Serrano said they hope to commence construction of the facility by September 2026. It will be built on reclaimed land near the airport, requiring more complex construction planning.

He added that hiring will begin by 2028, as hospital employees will undergo intensive training before operations start in 2031.

“We will build on our strengths and the strengths that we have identified in terms of knowing the direction for the hospital, the kind of talent that we need, and the kind of technology we will adopt. It’s a bit of a challenge for ASEANA as we are in the age of artificial intelligence, precision medicine, molecular medicine, and molecular oncology. There’s a lot of explosion of these technologies and we really need to navigate through all of that,” Dr. Serrano explained.

Charity wing

Serrano also revealed that in the coming months or years, St. Luke’s Medical Center, known for serving Classes A and B, will open a charity wing for Class F, or those patients who cannot pay at all.

“Despite being the go-to hospital for the Class A and B, we also cater to Class D. We allocate around P400 million every year for Class D. But soon, we will be catering to Class F or those who don’t have the capacity, whatsoever, to pay. It will be totally free. We will be opening that in our Quezon City hospital, called the ‘Dana Evelyn Ang,’ which will be funded not just by St. Luke’s but also by donors who feel that they want to give more to Filipino patients who are in dire need,” Serrano disclosed.