For close to a decade, the medical needs of Davao region was mainly dependent on the services of the Davao Mission Hospital (DMH), founded in 1908 by the Protestant mission, and five of its dispensaries, the equivalent of today’s barangay health centers.
Although this sectarian medical facility was primarily intended for the indigents and the underprivileged, it was compelled to admit foreigners, mostly Japanese entrepreneurs and Chinese merchants, who were willing to pay for the treatments that were not available anywhere else. Earnings from these patients helped the DMH in terms of maintenance and supplies.
In 1917, the district engineer’s office decided to open a sick ward to care and treat sick laborers, in particular the sacadas hired by plantation owners from Luzon and the Visayas. The following year, on the strength of the Special Act passed by the Philippine legislature two years earlier, a 25-bed Davao Public Hospital (DPH) was built on a 2.2-hectare site donated by Francisco Villa-Abrille where the Davao Mental Hospital stands. The medical facility was inaugurated on September 1, 1918. Dr. Eugenio de Jesus, the district health officer, was chosen chief of the new facility, which was the first public hospital in the region.
In the Report of the Philippine Health Service for 1919, admission in the government medical facility that year reached 486, while ninety-six patients died under treatment, or a high of nearly 25 percent of mortality. In that same year, there were five major operations and there were ten minor surgeries. Collections from September to December 1918 reached PhP1,199.92.
Supporting the functions of the hospital were two Davao laboratories, which, reported having conducted tests on 3,474 requests in 1919. These tests were divided as follows: 176, blood; fifty-nine, urine; 1,651, stools; thirty-nine, sputum; and 1,568, discharges.
Comparatively, the total tests performed in 1918 totalled only 1,952 examinations, which covered only four months. In 1920, the Davao laboratories registered a lower number of tests conducted, with only 1,766. In 1932, a 10-bed annex pavilion was constructed to accommodate the growing number of patients.
During the Japanese occupation, the hospital was occupied by the Japanese Imperial Army. When the war was over, the U.S. forces took over and occupied it, and put up the 25th Station Hospital for use of the U.S. Armed Forces. It was only on August 23, 1945, after the liberation, that the entire unit of the Davao Public Hospital, later renamed in 1957 to Davao General Hospital (DGH), was temporarily transferred to the Philippine Constabulary (PC).
Not too long thereafter, the sanatorium became a national hospital with an authorized capacity of 200 hundred beds. June 22, 1957, through the efforts of Rep. Ismael Veloso and Dr. Manuel P. Babao By 1958, DGH, under Republic Act No. 1859, became the Davao Regional Medical and Training Center (DRMTC). Four months later, on September 24, President Carlos P. Garcia led the cornerstone-laying of its new building.
On Nov. 28, 1958, with the issuance of Department of Health Order 100, series of 1958, the hospital was designated as training hospital for resident physicians, nurses, and midwives. For the purpose, an initial P1 million was released from June 24 to October 1960; this is part of the long-term P3-million earmarked for the training center.
That same year, on July 18, the Out-Patient Clinic was organized in compliance with Department Order No. 163, series of 1960. On January 3, 1961, the Medical Social Service started. The following month, on February 11, a ground-breaking ceremony was held to signal the construction of the medical center for the Nervous Diseases Pavilion. Two months later, on April 7, a pilot plant, the Limb and Brace Shop, was established.
Through the decades, its transformation was phenomenal. On December 12, 1964, the new medical center, a three-story building located at Bajada, was inaugurated. Two years later, patients from the old hospital building were gradually transferred to the Davao Regional Training Center (DRMTC) edifice built on a 12.8-hectare site. Apprised of the burgeoning volume of patients flocking to the institution, the Bureau of Medical Services Office under the DOH increased the bed capacity from 200 to 350.
In May 1966, DRMTC became fully operational after all the patients and equipment from the old Davao General Hospital was transferred. On June 3, 1966, one hundred ninety-eight (198) mental patients from the National Mental Hospital in Mandaluyong City, excluding the medical staff, arrived and occupied the old hospital building.
On December 8, 1970, under DOH Administrative Order No. 157, the hospital was officially designated as the “Medical Center for Mindanao and Sulu”. The following year, it was accredited for the affiliation of medical interns, and later by graduates of Nursing, Psychiatry, Dietary, Psychology, Medical Social Services, Midwifery, Dentistry, and lately Physical Therapy. On September 13, 1977, the Supreme Court ruled with finality that the 12.8-hectare site of the medical institution was a government property.
In 1986, the Davao Mental Hospital, an extension of the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH), was placed under the control of DRMTC. At that time, the hospital was renamed Davao Medical Center (DMC) and its bed capacity improved to 600. The name Davao Regional Hospital and Training Center was later given to the then Davao del Norte Provincial Hospital.
Under Republic Act No. 9792 approved on November 19, 2009, the hospital was renamed Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) and its bed capacity increased from 600 to 1,200. The SPMC premises also host the Mindanao Heart Center, which was established in 2007, and the Burn Unit, the only one of its kind outside Metro Manila.
