Senate approves Rufus’ bill doubling NMMC bed capacity to 1,200

SENATE committee has approved on Wednesday a bill seeking to double the bed capacity of the state-run Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) to 1,200 from the current 600.

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez welcomed the approval of the House Bill 7974 which he authored that was also approved by the House committee on health in December last year.

At the joint hearing Tuesday of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography and the Senate Committee on Finance chaired by Senator Bong Go, House, Rodriguez delivered his sponsorship speech for his Bill or an act of Increasing the bed capacity of Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC).

“Right now, especially with this Covid-19 pandemic our hospital beds of 600 cannot anymore accommodate the daily influx of almost 900 to 1,000 patients,” said Rodriguez.

That is why there is a need of this particular bill to be approved, he said.

“I am asking the honorable two distinguished committees of health and finance to already have this [bill] approved by these committees, bring it for plenary approval by the Senate and to be signed by the President before the year ends,” Rodriguez urged.

The Senate version of the bill is contained in SB N0. 1606 authored by Senator Imee Marcos.

Six years ago, the NMMC increased its bed capacity from 300 to 600 beds through the efforts and law sponsored by Rodriguez.

Rodriguez expressed his gratitude to Senator Go for the Malasakit Center in NMMC which is assisting hundreds of patients in need of financial aid for their hospital bills and medicine.

The House leader also thanked Senator Go, Senator Marcos, and Senator Nancy Binay for approving the budget for the completion of two (2) new building in NMMC, the new Ward Building (P500 million) and the Heart, Lung and Kidney Center (P300 million).

With these new buildings, more beds are needed for Patients who will occupy these buildings, according to Rodriguez.

DS Rodriguez have been working for the budget of the said facilities under the Department of Health and its yearly release under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) since 2013.

He said that the approval of the bill will double the budget of NMMC next year to hire more doctors, nurses, and other health care personnel commensurate to having 1,200 hospital beds. (Ben Balce)