CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – A P400-million Department of Health-supervised hospital is expected to be built in the municipality of Villanueva, Misamis Oriental soon, officials said.
A one-hectare land located near the Villanueva municipal complex is already being prepped for the eventual construction of the medical facility, said Mayor Jennie Rosalie Mendez.
Mendez said no specific date has yet been set for the start of the hospital’s construction, but initial information revealed it has a 25-bed capacity.
Last month, officials from the DOH-10 led by regional director Dr. Adriano Suba-an conducted an ocular inspection on the project site.
The proposed project came about after Rep. Juliette Uy, Mendez’s mother representing Misamis Oriental’s 2nd legislative district, filed House Bill 3462 in Congress in 2019.
The bill sought to establish the Northern Mindanao District Hospital, which will be under the supervision of the DOH, in Villanueva.
In her explanatory note, Uy said Villanueva is now widely considered as the growing industrial hub in Misamis Oriental, or even in Northern Mindanao, as it has 16 medium to large-scale industries based in the municipality.
She said “there is a need to establish a hospital in the area to ensure that the population is given adequate health care in the quickest possible time especially during emergencies.”
A hospital in that part of the province, Uy said, is essential considering that Villanueva is 26 kilometers away from Cagayan de Oro where the nearest hospitals are located.
Mendez elaborated the idea of building a hospital in Villanueva was conceptualized in 2014, when she was working as her mother’s congressional staff, although her parents, who both served as town mayor in the past, have dreamed of establishing a medical facility there.
“It was the time when it was just our advocacy and now we will soon hold the groundbreaking,” Mendez said.
She said the district hospital will not be constructed to compete with other medical institutions but to decongest the already crowded DOH-supervised Northern Mindanao Medical Center located in downtown Cagayan de Oro. Newsline.ph
