SENATOR Juan Edgardo ‘Sonny’ Angara on Wednesday reiterated the need to establish hospitals in every state university and college offering a medical degree.

Angara stressed the urgent need to ramp up the bed capacities of hospitals nationwide so that no patient will be turned away, particularly during critical periods such as a pandemic.

He said it was alarming to hear reports about patients being turned away because hospitals have reached their full capacity.

“The current surge in cases of Covid19 and its new variants has given us a rude awakening as to how much more we have to go to strengthen our health system. We must start to ramp up the capacities of our hospitals so that every Filipino who needs medical attention will get the care they deserve,” Angara said.

Angara has filed Senate Bill 1850 or the proposed Healthcare Facility Augmentation Act, which seeks to establish hospitals in every state university and college offering a medical degree that will have a bed capacity of not less than 50.

He also filed Senate Bill 1873 which aims to establish satellite hospitals or specialized units of the Philippine Heart Center, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Lung Center of the Philippines, and the Philippine Children’s Medical Center in various regions.

Apart from providing specialized care for patients outside Metro Manila, Angara said the satellite specialty hospitals will also serve to augment the bed capacities in those areas.

A recent study by the University of the Philippines indicated that the country has an average of just 3.7 doctors for every 10,000 members of the population.

This is way below the recommendation of the World Health Organization of 10 doctors for every 10,000 population. Only the National Capital Region was able to meet this ratio.

In Region IV-B, the ratio was only 1.8 to 10,000 while in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, it was even lower at 0.8 to 10,000.

The study also noted that there are only 6.1 beds for every 10,000 Filipinos.

“Right now even the biggest of hospitals in Metro Manila are at full capacity, and the number of active cases of Covid19 continues to go up. We need more hospitals and doctors at the soonest possible time,” Angara said.