THE University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) enhanced its capacity to deliver advanced healthcare to poor Filipinos with the acquisition of diagnostic equipment and critical care facilities, reinforcing the hospital’s mission of providing free, high-quality healthcare while training future medical professionals.
In a statement released last week, the UP-PGH recently unveiled a cutting-edge Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Computed Tomography (CT) scan facility, a first for any government hospital in the Philippines.
It also inaugurated a new centralized intensive care unit capable of accommodating 32 patients and installed a 128-slice CT scan. It serves around 700,000 patients annually.
These advancements are part of the hospital’s long-term master plan to modernize its services.
“We need this machine badly because it has become central to the diagnosis of cancer, a major concern of our healthcare system,” UP-PGH Director Gerardo D. Legaspi said in a statement.
Poor patients will use the machine 80% of the time, compared to 20% for paying patients, he added.
The PET-CT scan procedure can accommodate up to eight patients a day at present and will be scaled up to 15 once operations become more regular, he added.
UP-PGH’s advancements go beyond imaging as recent interventions have included free angiography and stent placement for heart attack patients, cochlear implants for poor children and robotic surgeries for underserved patients.
The hospital also offers new treatments, such as intraoperative radiotherapy for breast cancer, eliminating the need for prolonged radiation therapy and deep brain stimulation for Lubag disease or X-linked dystonia-parkinsonism.
UP-PGH is also the only hospital in the country offering High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound for tremors and has introduced a transcranial magnetic stimulation unit to aid patients with mental health conditions.
The recent addition of a robotic gait trainer in its rehabilitation department further underscores its commitment to providing better healthcare to marginalized communities.
Mr. Legaspi highlighted how UP-PGH’s modernization is supported by the government, with the hospital receiving a P7.72-billion allocation in the 2024 national budget. This represents one-third of the University of the Philippines’ total budget.
UP-PGH continues to collaborate with the Department of Health to expand access to its services for non-PGH patients and train healthcare personnel nationwide. — Chloe Mari A. Hufana