Aside from the military hospital across the Philippine Constabulary barracks (now Camp Domingo Leonor), Davao did not have its own sickbay until 1908 when Davao Mission Hospital (now Brokenshire) was opened under the directorship of Dr. Charles T. Sibley.
The hospital, managed by a Protestant sect, was “a small, private, twenty-bed, bungalow hospital in Davao, maintained by the contributions of a group of philanthropic gentlemen of New York, which has been of signal benefit to the people of that district.”
It was not until December 20, 1917 that the Davao Public Hospital, a state sanatorium, was put on track, initially addressing minor ailments. The next year, due to the influx of migrants, it further raised its medical services while the concrete 50-bed hospital was still under construction.
Utilized as a temporary public hospital was the Bureau of Public Works laborers’ sick ward whose operation was already turned over to the Philippine Health Services (PHS). To comply with its obligation, it was given the needed equipment and facilities, and a laboratory.
The public hospital was initially led by Dr. Simeon B. Macasaet, as a resident physician; Juan L. Factora, as superintendent, property clerk and cashier; Andrea Vicente, as a chief nurse; Remedios Ferrer and Ignacio Diego, as nurses; and ward attendants, helpers, and cooks. (Dr. Macasaet was officially appointed resident physician on August 22, 1920.)
Except for the completion of the permanent building, the hospital, by 1919, was operating at near capacity. The PHS summary report for that year indicated that 486 patients were admitted and 2,977 outpatients were served, or an average of 8.1 patients daily. It also performed several clinics, namely: medical, 144; surgical, 25; eye, ear, nose, and throat, 2; and obstetrical, 15.
Topping the 486 admittance were patients sick of malaria (241), followed by Asiatic cholera (62), influenza (35), dysentery (25), beri-beri (20), gonococcus infection and diseases of the stomach (14 each), traumatism by cutting or piercing and tuberculosis of the lungs (9 each), unspecified causes of death (5), other diseases of the liver (4), leprosy, anemia, acute nephritis, and diseases of the skin (3 each), typhoid, smallpox, purulent infection and blood poisoning, chronic bronchitis, asthma, and hookworm infection (2 each), and the remainder were one each.
In terms of nationalities taken care of, the report showed that 459 Filipinos (Christians and non-Christians) were treated; American, 1; Japanese, 24; European, 1; and others, 1. Americans usually sought the services of the military hospital. By European, it likely referred to a Spanish.
Among the patients ministered to, 376 were male and 111 females. As to classes of service, these were categorized into charity (213), government free (199), and private pay (74). Similarly, operations were also classified the same way. Of the prescriptions issued, 996 were deemed charity; 759 were government free; and 312 were for outside calls made by the hospital staff.
In the last quarter of 1919, the hospital’s formal opening, the ledger of expenses shows the following: P2,385.22, the subsistence of patients; P805.00, the subsistence of personnel; P1,905.69, expenditures for the subsistence of patients and personnel; and P1,806.16, collections.
Instead of 1920 as the projected date of completion of the Davao Public Hospital building, it was not until 1921 that the transfer of the operation was moved to the new structure. But this did not solve the growing number of patients seeking cures, which amounted to the shortage of space. The 1922 report of the Bureau of Health provides the explanation:
“In the Davao Public Hospital, the administrative office and hospital dispensary were temporarily quartered in the nurses’ dormitory due to lack of space. It is indeed amazing that despite the limitation of patients undertaken by most of the hospitals of the Division, the number of admissions during 1922 far exceeded that of the previous years.”
