TAGBILARAN CITY. – The proposed increase of the bed capacity of the regional hospital here has been approved by the House committee on health, Rep. Rene L Relampagos of Bohol’s first district issued the disclosure yesterday.
The first district solon said House Bill No. 3516 which seeks to increase the bed capacity of Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital (GCGMH) here from 225 to 526 has been approved by the House committee during its meeting last Wednesday.
The present regional hospital here was initially called as the Bohol Provincial Hospital by virtue of Republic Act No. 3114 which opened on October 19, 1929. Pursuant to Administrative Order No. 38, series of 1980 by the Ministry of Health, Bohol Provincial Hospital was originally designed as a Regional Teaching and Training Hospital for Region VII. It was then an 8-bed capacity hospital.
In 1984, under Batas Pambansa Bilang 640, the hospital was renamed Governor Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital (GCGMH). The bed capacity of GCGMH was increased to 150, then to 200 and finally to 225 beds under Republic Act No. 7266 which was enacted on March 20, 1992.
In his sponsorship speech, Rep. Relampagos said that this proposal is also fully supported by the Regional Development Council (RDC) of Region VII as well as the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA). In fact, initial allocation had already been included in the 2015 General Appropriations Act (GAA) but additional allocation will be needed to complete the project.
Dr. Jaime Bernadas of the Department of Health (DOH) Region VII, who attended the meeting, also gave his full support to HB 3516.
Cong. Relampagos elaborated that for more than 20 years since the enactment of Republic Act 7266, the bed capacity of GCGMH has not changed despite the significant change in the number of patients being served by the hospital. Consequently, there is also a need to substantially improve the facilities and services of the hospital.
Also discussed in the said congressional meeting last Wednesday is the legislative proposal to increase dialysis allocation by patient of PhilHealth from the current 45 sessions to 90 sessions per year under House Bill No. 5403 and House Resolution No. 1516.
Dr. Dator, executive director of the National Kidney Transplant Institute (NKTI) said that institute fully supports the proposed expanded coverage of dialysis treatment.
However, NKTI gave a presentation as to the current situation of End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) in the country. They said that new cases of ESRD increases by 18%-20% per year and the leading causes remain diabetes and hypertension. They further said the increase in subsidy for dialysis means higher survival for renal disease patients. More importantly, in their presentation, they distinguished between the more commonly known hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) which NKTI promotes.
NKTI further said that they have adopted the “PD First Policy” and are willing to give trainings to medical as well as non-medical practitioners for PD. They said that with the current allocation of PhilHealth under the Z Benefit Package, patients can be fully supported if they opt for PD rather than HD.
Rep. Relampagos, seeing the potential of PD said that he will further study the matter and file an appropriate legislative proposal to support and push for a ‘PD First Policy’ by DOH for the entire country.
He pointed out that given our lack of funds, PD can well respond to the needs of renal patients as against the usually expensive HD. In the meantime, the first district manifested his intention to be a co-author of the legislative measures to increase dialysis allocations under PhilHealth. (with reports from Dandreb James L. Arro)

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