The construction of Samar Island Medical Center in Calbayog City, Samar, has already started with an allocation of PHP477.68 million, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) reported on Thursday.

DPWH Eastern Visayas regional director Edgar Tabacon said civil works for the first phase of the mother-and-child building and the outpatient building (OPD) will be completed within the year.

Funded under the 2023 appropriation, at least PHP100 million was initially released in late 2023 for the site development and construction of the road network within the project vicinity, including concrete-lined canals and slope protection.

DPWH is tasked to implement the construction of two four-story mother-and-child buildings and an outpatient with a roof deck.

The main building, which will house an emergency department, a laboratory department, and other significant facilities, will be implemented by the Department of Health (DOH).

The DOH has yet to disclose the cost of building the other facilities.

“To date, the region has only one tertiary hospital, which is the Eastern Visayas Medical Center (EVMC) in Tacloban City. It is time for us, national government agencies, to work together for the benefit of the entire Samar Island,” Tabacon said.

For 2024, the DPWH received a PHP400 million allocation to fully complete the mother-and-child building and for the continuation of the OPD building.

The DOH has been eyeing the construction of a 300-bed tertiary hospital in Calbayog City to serve Samar Island’s three provinces with 1.2 million population.

For now, patients with serious illnesses in three Samar provinces need to be transported to the EVMC here.

It takes a five-hour trip by land to get to Tacloban City from Calbayog, the site of the new hospital.

The planned DOH-run tertiary hospital will rise on a four-hectare lot in Gadgaran village, owned by the city government of Calbayog. (PNA)