The establishment of a P6-billion dedicated cancer hospital in Manila has been approved by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board, Malacañang announced.
The NEDA, which is chaired by President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., has given its nod to the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) Cancer Center project on Thursday, Feb. 2.
It is the first project to be constructed through public private partnership (PPP) under the current administration.
Presidential Communications Office Secretary Cheloy Garafil said the establishment of the 300-bed capacity hospital is aimed at modernizing the country’s health infrastructure on oncology services and cancer care.
It will offer comprehensive, high-quality, and affordable oncology services, Garafil added.
It will be solicited from the public through the submission of a bid and will be structured as a 30-year Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) arrangement under the BOT Law.
The BOT approach is an agreement that grants a concession to a private partner to finance, build, and operate a project over a fixed term.
After that period, the project is returned to the public entity that originally granted the concession.
The Cancer Center, with an area of 3,000 square meters, will be located within the UP-PGH campus in Manila.
The entire building will have a capacity of 300 beds (150 charity beds for the UP-PGH Area and 150 private beds for the Private Area), 15 to 20 floors, 350 parking spaces, 1,000 square meter of commercial space, and an area for three linear accelerators (LINAC) bunkers.
The hospital will provide a full range of cancer treatments, including radio oncology (radiotherapy), imaging, medical oncology, and support for the UP-PGH’s teaching and research activities.
The UP-PGH’s private partner will design, engineer, construct, and commission the entire new hospital building, procure, maintain, and provide for the periodic replacement of medical and non-medical equipment.
It will also maintain all non-clinical services for the entire hospital building, operate relevant commercial activities, provide clinical services to private-paying patients in the private area, and assume all associated costs of clinical manpower, drugs, and consumables.
UP-PGH, on the other hand, will provide the site at no cost, transfer the existing equipment to the Cancer Institute, provide clinical services to non-paying charity patients in the UP-PGH area, assume all associated costs of clinical manpower, drugs, and consumables, as well as undertake clinical teaching and research.