By Dolly Yasa
BACOLOD CITY – Mayor Alfredo “Albee” Benitez said the city government is planning to establish an emergency facility in partnership with Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) to help decongest the hospital.
In a press conference Monday, Benitez said he is awaiting the implementation of a memorandum of agreement with CLMMRH for the construction of a facility to handle emergency cases.
The proposed facility will be located at the old provincial office of the Department of Agrarian Reform near the Bacolod Reclamation Area at Dawis Extension in Barangay 14.
To be called Bagong Urgent Care and Ambulatory Services (BUCAS), the center will cater to emergency cases that CLMMRH can no longer accommodate.
Benitez said it will serve as an extension of the regional hospital to help ease its emergency room load.
He noted that patients from outside Bacolod, especially from the southern part of Negros Occidental, are often brought to the regional hospital because of its accessibility.
Benitez said a budget of PHP50 million to PHP60 million has been allocated for the facility’s construction.
He added that the project will begin after the May 12, 2025, elections due to the implementation of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) ban on new projects during the campaign period.
Benitez said the majority of patients at CLMMRH are from Bacolod, making the collaboration reasonable and necessary.
Meanwhile, the mayor said he would look into a report that a victim of the Barangay Alangilan Good Friday tragedy was not attended to by hospital staff.
He was referring to a Facebook post that went viral, with some users also sharing their negative experiences at the hospital.
“Not everything you read and see on social media is true, but we will look into that,” Benitez said.
