Asia - Pacific Medical Center Bacolod, Inc.

(Formerly Allied Care Experts Medical Center – Bacolod, Inc.)

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By: Dr. Jose Joel B. Yap

Bridging the Gaps of Healthcare Needs in the Island

The last 5 years saw one hospital rising in the south while another is opening soon in the east and along North Drive the biggest of them all is set to become even bigger. Will the soon-to-rise ACE Medical Center be viable?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) the ideal bed to population ratio should be 2 hospital beds per 1,000 population. While the national average is a dismal 1 bed per 1,000 people, in a 2008 census, Western Visayas which is supposedly one of the more developed regions in the country has only 0.78 bed per 1,000 individuals! That is way below the nation’s average.

No wonder every time we have a Dengue season all our hospitals in the city are full to the brim with Emergency Rooms all crowded with patients.           

The 6 tertiary hospitals currently operating in the city has a combined capacity of about 1,200 beds only. Although one may argue that this meets the needs of over half a million Bacolodnons, it is vastly inadequate to serve the 2 1/2 million Negrenses living in the occidental side alone.

In a paper “The Philippine Health System at a Glance”, the Department of Health states that the number of hospital beds is a good indicator of health service availability. Adding all the hospital beds of the various private and government hospitals in the 6 districts of Negros Occidental to those within the lone district of Bacolod City will still fall short of the approximately 5,000 hospital beds needed to meet the WHO criteria. This makes quality health care not readily available to most Negrosanons.

ACE Medical Center – Bacolod is envisioned to fill-up this wide chasm. And as a ultra-modern health care institution, it will also bring state-of-art facilities & services within the reach of our patients.

So do we need another hospital in the city? Definitely yes! Patients as well as the medical community will benefit from these developments and we can all look forward to a future with ultra-modern health care deliveries right in our community.