EDITORIAL

Capiznon Doctor Builds Hospital Cum Hotel

by Felipe V. Celino

The first ever "hospital" – a hospital and hotel in the Visayas will soon rise in Capiz at a cost of P450 million.

A simple ground-breaking ceremony was held last week on the 30-hectare development site in Roxas City. Capitalizing on the growing popularity of the medical hotel concept and supported by the results of studies conducted, the project involves the construction of a 100-bed tertiary hospital, a well-equipped facility offering a full range of medical services with an adjoining hotel.

To be known as The Health Centrum, the facility will be at the heart of the 30-hectare complex owned by the Balgos family located in Roxas City’s Barangay (village) Banica. It will be financed by a loan from the Landbank of the Philippines.

The entire property is envisioned to become a fully sufficient community with areas earmarked for nursing and medical training schools, housing for medical practitioners, a retirement village, residential subdivision, and commercial establishments.

According to Doctor Abundio Balgos, a Metro Manila based physician, the planned integrated hospital, hotel, and mall complex would serve clients not only from Roxas City and Capiz province but also other parts of Panay, such as Iloilo, Aklan, Antique, Masbate and the Northern part of Palawan.
"The hospital would offer modern and state of the art general and specialty medical services, as well as a resort/out-patient/long term care and treatment facility," Balgos added.

Moreover, the hotel will also serve the patients of the hospital, both in-patients requiring nursing care, pain management or observation services for their recuperation, and out-patients requiring temporary accommodation before and after their medical examinations.

Because of its proximity to island resorts and diving spots, the facility will also have a decompression chamber. As planned, a mall adjacent to the hospital and hotel will also be built.

The property is close to the College of St. John – Roxas, a De La Salle supervised school which has elementary, high school, and college that offers a nursing course. An 11-hectare residential subdivision intended to serve as a retirement village is also planned. Balgos said medical tourism would enhance the viability of the project once the institution is able to establish a good reputation built on competent medical specialists, nursing care, state of the art equipment, and a center for alternative medicine.

The development would cover a period of 10 years. The total project cost is based on a set of technical studies conducted by a team of doctors, architects, and engineers. As main proponent of the project, Balgos stressed, he would relocate his medical practice to Roxas City when the project starts operating.

(In this age of advance information technology and the aging population of the world, medical tourism is quite neccesary. People of the world specifically in the European countries like Spain, and Italy, their population is growing old every year.

The hospital cum hotel of the Balgos Clan of Roxas City is a very positive response to the need of foreign nationals. Roxas City is highly appropriate destination for medical tourism.

Madyaas Pen congratulates the Balgos family and other proponents of the project. May its operation starts soon. /MP