Anakalusugan Party-list Representative Mike Defensor on Sunday, March 20, said that the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) Diliman Project will produce more than 3,000 jobs to help boost Quezon City’s economy.
“We are wholly endorsing the project. Besides vastly improving public access to world-class charity hospitalization and outpatient services, the project will create 3,400 new permanent jobs,” Defensor said.
“We’ve gone over the project details, and the hospital alone will create 1,500 new full-time occupations for medical and allied healthcare staff plus 1,900 new fixed positions for general administrative workers,” he added.
Defensor, who is running as city mayor in the 2022 elections, said the project will produce new jobs in building and equipment maintenance, cleaning, and security services, as well as construction-related jobs which will help low-income households.
“Once the project is completed, additional jobs will be created by small businesses that will emerge around the hospital’s 24-hour operation,” the lawmaker said.
The P21.3-billion project, implemented by UP through a 25-year “build-transfer-maintain”contract with a private partner, aims to develop a state-of-the-art, 700-bed university teaching and research hospital with mulitspecialty capabilities, different services (outpatient, hospice care, auxillary) and a college of medicine.
It will be built on the 4.2 hectares open land inside UP Diliman Campus, which will have a 80,0000 square-meter gross floor area and a 13,600 square-meter car parking space.
The UP-PGH project will create regular positions for doctors and other medical/health workers, social welfare officers and assistants, laboratory and medical equipment technicians, physical therapy technicians and health physicists.
Fixed positions for administrative officers and assistants, engineers, accountants, statisticians, chemists, training specialists and assistants, computer maintenance technologists, housekeepers and other jobs will also be generated.
Defensor said that he intends to work with UP and its private partner for fast-track the project if he wins as the city mayor.
“Whatever the project needs in terms of local government permits and licenses, we will surely expedite them,” he said.