Cainta, Rizal Mayor Keith Nieto said they are applying for the level 2 accreditation of the LGU-run Cainta Municipal Hospital this year, as the local government continues to expand the bed capacity and upgrade the hospital's medical equipment.

"In fact, I said this year, I'm going to apply for our hospital to be level 2, which means there are a lot of other facilities that I have to install or put up so that we can qualify," Nieto told members of the PaMaMariSan-Rizal Press Corps in an interview.

Nieto said the Department of Heath (DOH) has already inspected their hospital and advised them on what to do so that it will be accredited as a level 2.

"Level 2 allows us to perform a lot of new surgical procedures, among which is this cath lab [catheterization laboratory] that we can put if we already have a license so that all angioplasty, angiograms will be done there soon," the mayor said.

Just recently, the local government has partnered with a private hospital from Antipolo City to provide free heart procedures for qualified residents, a program inspired by the mayor's own recent battle with heart disease.

"There was that instance that I had to go to the hospital and do my medical procedures regarding my issues with the heart. I was brought to the cath lab and they were able to perform several stents on me because of the blockages," Nieto said.

"So when I returned here, I was thinking, because it was at the hospital that I was admitted to in Medical City, I already had some patients with me. So I was wondering, when I came back, there were probably a lot of people in this situation who might have this problem because, of course, it's expensive to have an operation like that. And I know for a fact that the Philippine Heart Center provides it, but the line is a bit long," the local chief executive added.

Nieto said he instructed the director of the municipal hospital to come up with a possible partner, maybe a secondary or tertiary hospital that has a cath lab that can offer the same.

"We will use the privileges of being a PhilHealth member of the patients. If they're not there, we will process it immediately so that they can qualify. Then, whatever the difference is, we will try to cover the expenses," he said.

"So the cath lab at the hospital is very new. And the hospital [Metro Antipolo Hospital] is now being managed by Mr. Manny Panganinan, situated very near Cainta," the mayor added.

Nieto said he asked for a 15-day period for the memorandum of agreement to be signed, but the contract was signed only six days.

"So the procedure would be like this. The moment I posted it on Facebook, there's already, I think, 38 patients who went to our hospital for that," he said.

"The first procedure was for the director of the hospital to refer the patient to our cardiovascular surgeon to determine if there is really a need to undergo an angiogram and an angioplasty procedure. So from there, from the preliminary examination, they get referred now to the hospital," the mayor added.

And apart from that, Nieto also said that Metro Antipolo Hospital offered him other procedures.

"It's also covered by PhilHealth for other diseases or surgeries or procedures that our hospital can't do," he said.

"There's already 38 now waiting for their turn to have that surgery done on them. Like I said, if this partnership doesn't exist, they might have a hard time securing a hospital that shall admit them and provide this relief where they don't have to think about where to get the expenses," the local chief executive added.