THE House Committee on Health approved last week the bill filed by 4th District Rep. Gina de Venecia seeking the expansion of the Region I Medical Center from a 300 to 600-bed capacity.

According to Dr. Roland Mejia, R1MC director, who attended the committee hearing on HB No. 3840 at the House of Representatives last Wednesday, the bill has been finally endorsed to the House plenary for deliberation.

Mejia said once the bill becomes law, R1MC will not only be able to expand its patient capacity but also become a Tertiary Level IV training and teaching hospital, the first in Ilocos Region.

Presently, the hospital functions on full capacity throughout the year.

“At any given day or at any given time, all beds of the hospital are occupied by patients,” said Mejia, citing an average occupancy of 115 percent in 2010.

R1MC is currently the only Tertiary Level IV medical center in Pangasinan and is already a training and teaching hospital on a limited scale.

“Our trainings are accredited by the Philippine Colleges of Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Philippine College of Physicians or Internal Medicines and Philippine College of Pediatrics,” he added.

R1MC is located on a three-hectare lot on Arellano Street in Dagupan City, donated for hospital use during the pre-war period by former Pangasinan Governor Teofilo Sison.

For its proposed expansion, the executive committee of the Department of Health has already approved the purchase of a one-hectare adjacent lot from the heirs of Sison.

HB 3840 covers a five-year development plan for R1MC, with 60 additional beds to be set up every year, upgrade of some facilities, manpower increase and training for technological capability development.–LM

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