The city government here has formalized its partnership with the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) for the establishment of the Bagong Urgent Care and Ambulatory Service (BUCAS) Plus Center, the first-of-its-kind in the Negros Island Region (NIR).
Mayor Greg Gasataya and Dr. Joan Cerrada, hospital chief of CLMMRH, signed a memorandum of agreement on Tuesday for the initial five-year operation of the healthcare facility on the city-owned property in Barangay 14, in a ceremony held at the Bacolod City Government Center lobby.
“It will have a 15-bed capacity for now. We call this BUCAS Plus because it will be more than just a BUCAS Center. It will also provide telemedicine services and host a human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome treatment hub,” Cerrada said.
The CLMMRH chief thanked the city government for providing the infrastructure for the BUCAS Center operations.
“This is a collaboration that would really benefit, most of all, the patients that we serve. For us healthcare workers, this is a fresh start because we will be provided with better infrastructure and better work stations,” she added.
Gasataya said the construction of the BUCAS Plus Center, which has a funding of PHP50 million, is expected to be completed in nine months.
“We will ensure this will be implemented quickly, for the people of Bacolod to benefit from the program that will further improve our health services,” the mayor said.
Health Undersecretary Mary Ann Maestral said the DOH will provide the equipment and manpower for the BUCAS Plus Center.
She also emphasized the vital role of the barangay health workers (BHWs) in the operations of the healthcare facility.
“The BHWs will serve as our conduit to the people. They are our partners who will guide the patients to the BUCAS Center,” she said.
Bacolod City Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez, who proposed the establishment of the BUCAS Plus Center before completing his term as mayor in June, said the construction of the healthcare facility is one of the solutions he pushed to decongest the emergency room of the CLMMRH.
“To ease the difficulty of our people in accessing medical services, we are establishing more facilities for urgent care,” he said. (PNA)