Doctor builds hospital cum hotel in Capiz

ROXAS CITY, Philippines – The first-ever “hospitel” – a hospital and hotel – in the Visayas will soon rise in Capiz at a cost of P450 million.

A simple groundbreaking ceremony was held last Tuesday on the 30-hectare development site in this city.

Capitalizing on the growing popularity of the medical hotel concept and backed by the results of studies conducted, the project involves the construction of a 100-bed tertiary hospital –a well-equipped facility offering a full range of medical services – with an adjoining hotel.

To be known as The Health Centrum, the facility will be at the heart of the 30-hectare complex owned by the Balgos Family located in Roxas City’s Barangay (village) Banica. It will be financed by a loan from the Land bank of the Philippines.

The entire property is envisioned to become a fully sufficient community with areas earmarked for nursing and medical training school, housing for medical practitioners, a retirement village, residential subdivision, and commercial establishments.

Doctor Abundio Balgos, currently based in Metro Manila, said the planned integrated hospital, hotel, and mall complex would serve clients not only from Roxas City and province but also other parts of Panay, such Iloilo, Aklan, Antique, and Boracay Island, as well as Masbate and the northern part of Palawan, which are nearby.

Balgos said the hospital would offer modern and state-of-the-art general and specialty medical services, as well as a resort/out-patient/long-term care and treatment facility.

The hotel will also serve the patients of the hospital, both in-patients requiring nursing care, pain management or observation services for their recuperation, and out-patients requiring temporary accommodation before and after their medical exams, he added.

Because of its proximity to island resorts and diving spots, the facility will also have a decompression chamber, he added.

According to the plan, a mall adjacent to the hospital and hotel will also be built.

The property is close to the College of St. John – Roxas, a De La Salle supervised school, which has elementary, high school, and college that offers a nursing course.

An 11-hectare residential subdivision intended to serve as a retirement village, is also planned, he said.

Balgos said medical tourism would enhance the viability of the project once the institution was able to establish a good reputation built on competent medical specialists, nursing care, state-of-the-art equipment, and a center for alternative medicine.

Balgos said the development would cover a period of 10 years. The total project cost was based on a set of technical studies conducted by a team of doctors, architects and engineers.

As main proponent of the project, Balgos said he would relocate his medical practice to Roxas City when the project starts operations. - Felipe V. Celino, Inquirer Visayas, January 02, 2010