MARAWI CITY (MindaNews / 2 Sept) – The Amai Pakpak Medical Center (APMC) has commissioned P60-million worth of facilities and equipment to improve medical services in Lanao del Sur.
Dr. Shalimar Sani Rakiin, APMC chief, and Director Adriano Suba-an, Regional Director of the Department of Health Region 10, on Friday led the cutting of ribbon and commissioning of two 500 KVA power generators, an oxygen refilling plant, psychiatry unit, and six additional pneumatic system stations.
Rakiin said the newly commissioned oxygen plant is connected to some of the wards and the emergency room. For the wards without direct line, APMC will now refill those tanks themselves, instead of buying oxygen from nearby Iligan City.
She said they spent around P400,000 a month for their oxygen supply, which will now go to savings.
“We are also considering an income-generating opportunity to supply other district hospitals and rural health units that need supply of oxygen in the near future so that they will no longer travel to Iligan City to purchase oxygen,” she said.
Rakiin said the APMC has significantly improved in its efforts to deliver effective and efficient services to the patients who seek assistance during their confinement.
The campaign for continuous donations has been sustained for the blood banks to meet the need for blood, especially those severely affected by dengue.
She said they plan to set up a dialysis center, regional heart-lung center and eye center in the buildings under construction.
Since she assumed the post last year, Rakiin’s wish has been to transform APMC into a service-oriented hospital and a “pro-poor hospital.”
“We have converted private rooms for charity because most of our patients are charity and they can’t be accommodated because most of the rooms are private. With my assumption, the 36 percent charity cases have increased to 86 percent,” she said.
In five years, Rakiin says she envisions the hospital to be a multi-specialty medical center in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), able to tend to patients with heart and lung diseases, a hospital that can do heart bypass operation and angioplasty, and has its own eye, cancer and kidney center
Rakiin said they sent their heart and lung specialists to Singapore and the Philippine Heart Center for further training.
She said they have 20 units of dialysis machines but would need additional units. “We have waitlisted 100 Maranaw patients now in Iligan City and Cagayan de Oro City, so we need to increase by 20 more units to accommodate the patients,” Rakiin added.
Suba-an lauded the APMC for being the “best medical center in the entire BARMM.” She was apparently referring to the provinces in the BARMM – Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-tawi, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur. BARMM has three cities – Marawi, Lamitan and its new member, Cotabato City, which has well-equipped private hospitals and a regional government hospital.
“The Marawi Siege was a great challenge for us and the APMC hurdled it,” he said.
Suba-an said “the hospital has tremendously improved with the newly-completed facilities.”
Fire razed the Amai Pakpak hospital on October 13, 2006.
Suba-an said the Amai Pakpak Medical Center is like a Phoenix that rises from the ashes of the fire. When the hospital was burned, that inspired the health personnel “to act more, to give more services and to plan more and it also opened the doors to their vision to become bigger. I think that in every disaster that happens here, these Maranaw people and Christians, they rise from every fall.” (Richel V. Umel / MindaNews)