1st phase of CCMC already 50% done

CEBU, Philippines - The first phase of the new Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) building is now 50 percent complete.

The new structural framework and developments of the hospital can be seen outside the fenced 1.2-hectare location at the corner of N. Bacalso Avenue and Panganiban Street.

Tomorrow, February 24, marks the third year after former mayor Michael Rama ordered the old building of the 45-year-old hospital demolished due to massive damage from the magnitude 7.2 earthquake that hit Central Visayas in 2013.

In the project status report submitted by City Engineer Josefa Ylanan, phase one of the project, which covers the structural framework of the building, is 50 percent complete as of February 10.

The first phase is projected to be completed in October this year.

Initially, the previous administration wanted to finish the whole framework of the 10-storey building during the first phase.

However, Councilor Mary Ann de los Santos said Mayor Tomas Osmeña wants to have functional five stories first than wait for the whole structure to be completed.

De los Santos is the deputy mayor on health services assigned to oversee the development of the construction of the new CCMC building.

As of now, C.E. Padilla, the contractor of the project, has completed concreting the first lift column and ramp beam at vehicular ramp, as well as scaffolding erection and formworks installation at the ground floor, and installation of rebars at the column area on the ground floor, among others.

Concreting of slabs of the lower ground, upper ground, and second floor has also been completed.

The ongoing works for the first phase, which costs P514 million, is now on the concreting of slabs from the third floor to the fifth floor of the building.

After the concreting of slabs, the contractor will focus on the division of every floor to proceed with the architectural designs, among others.

“The structure will be done by October. I hope we can see a functional hospital by December because we cannot delay things,” she told The FREEMAN.

The new 10-story hospital, a 500-bed facility, is estimated to cost P1.5 billion. As of now, the donations from private individuals amounting to P20 million were placed in a special account. It will probably be used to procure equipment for the new hospital.

De los Santos said one of the considerations of the city government is that the new hospital can withstand strong quakes.

She said the official date of construction of the new building was in July 2015 but works were suspended in June 2016 after finding out that there was no building permit for the hospital. The works resumed in September 2016.

“Definitely, it will be a world class hospital. We want to dream big and think big about it. The constituency of Cebu deserves no less than what the private hospitals can offer, that is really our dream that we can offer it for the City of Cebu. It’s a different hospital. We want to give them the best services. We want to be at par with the world class hospitals,” she said.

De los Santos said that before the first five floors of the building will be functional, she will sit down with doctors and personnel of CCMC to discuss what operations need to be transferred to the new building.

Plan

After it was demolished, CCMC was downgraded to Level 1 from Level 2 due to the conditions at the Bureau of Fire Protection-7 building where the hospital was transferred.

Because of the downgrade, the city hospital’s capacity dropped to 108 beds from 300 beds.

De los Santos said the city government has secured the permit to construct from the Department of Health, which is a prerequisite to upgrade the hospital to Level 2.

Once the new hospital will be completed, city will apply for the Level 3 facility.

De los Santos said that once the new building will be fully functional, she will lobby to transform the temporary hospital at the CITOM building into a mental health facility.

“The new definition of health is not only in medical, we should also incorporate mental. We can probably make it (the temporary hospital) an extension of the hospital for the mental health,” she said.  (FREEMAN)