The number of hospitals thriving in Davao City signify that Dabawenyos and even patients from outside Davao City have considerable choices when it comes to receiving care from health providers.
Some are situated in the rural areas and smaller communities with often have limited access to advanced equipment or specialized procedures and techniques while some are located in the metropolitan area offering a wide degree of versatility when it comes to treatment options and patient experience.
Davao City is a home to various hospitals with different levels of service capabilities. Based on the data of the Department of Health-Davao Region (DOH-Davao Region), these are the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC), Brokenshire Integrated Health Ministries Inc, (BIHMI), Davao Doctors Hospital (DDH) and San Pedro Hospital (SPH).
These are classified as Level 3 hospitals, which means these are hospitals with service capabilities that are combination of all Level 1 and 2 hospitals plus the following: teaching/training with at least any two accredited residency program for physicians in any medical/surgical specialty and/or subspecialty; physical medicine and rehabilitation unity; ambulatory surgical clinic; and dialysis clinic.
The Davao Medical School Foundation (DMSF) Hospital, Anda Riverview Hospital, Gig Oca Robles Seamen’s Hospital Davao, Metro Davao Medical and Research Center (MDRMC), Seventh Day Adventist Hospital, Lanang Doctors Premiere Hospital, and Alterado General Hospital are classified as Level 2 hospitals offering services of all of Level 1 hospitals plus the following: departmentalized clinical services, respiratory unit; general ICU; high risk pregnancy unit; neonatal intensive care unit (NICU); and dental clinic.
Holy Spirit Community Hospital of Davao Inc., Malta Medical Center, Davao Mediquest Hospital Inc, St. John of the Cross Hospital, and Isaac T. Robillo Hospital Corporation are classified as Level 1 hospitals with services of consulting specialists in, but not be limited to medicine, pediatrics, Ob-Gyne, surgery; emergency and outpatient services; isolation facilities, surgical/maternity facilities.
Not only that. The city has designated apex/end-referral hospitals namely SPMC and DDH. These are hospitals offering specialized services as determined by DOH, which is contracted as a stand-alone facility by PhilHealth.
Are these enough to keep Dabawenyos in good shape? Based on the local health facility development plan of Davao City, the computed total number of in-patients hospital beds meets the standards (1 bed: 1,000 population) and is considered sufficient for the current population of Davao City.
These health facilities also play a very significant role in the mitigation of disasters because of their particular function in treating the injured and handling outbreaks of disease.
Former SPMC Chief of Hospital Health Undersecretary Dr. Leopoldo Vega cited example the first community outbreak of A(H1N1) outbreak in 2009.
“SPMC like all hospitals were not ready to handle and isolate the patients in the main hospital,” Vega said.
Vega said all samples taken from suspects all over the Philippines where sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) for laboratory and detection of the virus. This resulted in delayed reports and isolation of patients.
“For this SPMC thru RITM capacitated our lab workers to train in PCR machines to diagnose H1N1 in 2010. We were able to set up the lab and PCR machines since 2012 and made as a sub-national lab for RITM with complimentary resources,” he said.
For the isolation facility, Vega said SPMC was able to construct a new isolation facility equipped with engineering requirements like negative pressure and heap-filters to minimize the risk of health workers by 2013.
Vega said this experience with H1N1 gave SPMC the advantage of having a molecular laboratory set up of PCR machines with trained personnel and a new constructed isolation facility to prepare for the Covid-19 pandemic.
DDH and a city government-run laboratory were also opened to augment SPMC which is one of the 17 medical facilities recognized by the National Reference Laboratory as a satellite laboratory in the Philippines and the only one for Mindanao.
With the existing strong primary health care services, the city government of Davao is strengthening the frontline by establishing a city-owned public hospital that will rise in the complex of the University of the Philippines-Mindanao (UP-Mindanao) in Bago Oshiro.
Proposed by Councilor Mary Joselle Villafuerte, the Level 3 100-bed hospital will serve as a training center and as Covid-19 response and shall provide services for all kinds of illnesses, disease, injuries, or deformities pursuant to its classification under DOH Administrative Order No.2021-0012 of July 18, 2012.
Davao City is progressing in terms of advancing specialty centers in apex hospitals.
However, DOH 11 recommended to strengthen the primary care services first, in line with the goals of the Universal Health Care (UHC), which aims to establish primary care provider networks (PCPNs), to be linked to apex and specialty centers (to eventually create HCPNs).
