MAYOR Isko Moreno said that residents of Manila now need no longer go to expensive, private hospitals to seek treatment since they now have the Bagong Ospital ng Maynila providing free services that are at par with high-end hospitals.
Moreno also assured barangay chairmen, teachers and employees that they may be accommodated at the said hospital where special suites have been allotted for them in case they get sick.
The mayor made the announcement as he led the inauguration of the said hospital along with incoming Mayor Honey Lacuna and incoming Vice Mayor Yul Servo. They were joined by Manila Health Department chief Dr. Arnold ‘Poks’ Pangan, city engineer Armand Andres, city electrician Randy Sadac and Sta. Ana Hospital Director Dr. Grace Padilla.
In her speech, Lacuna, a doctor, recalled the time when she spent her residency at the said hospital, where they would scramble for a single pathology machine. The mayor, on the other hand, recalled how constituents would seek help for money so they could rent an incubator.
Moreno said all these are now part of the past as he invited Manilans to go around the new hospital and check out its state-of-the-art facilities ,since it is their money that was used to fund it, via city government funds.
Moreno also called on the barangay chairmen to continue supporting Lacuna and Servo the way they did during his three-year stint as Manila mayor, saying the efforts of city officials are not enough to ensure the success of any administration.
He also took the opportunity to take a potshot at their political rivals whom he said even caused the delay of the release of allowances for senior citizens, as he assured that with Lacuna at the helm, such benefits are assured of being continued without further delay.
Moreno boasted that Lacuna will be able to handle the job of a mayor with ease, having been a part of every project that their administration undertook these past three years.
The mayor said that the newly-inaugurated, ten-storey hospital has features like being fully-airconditioned; embedded, piped-in oxygen; electric- operated beds, an MRI machine, infant warmer, anethesia machine, digital mammogram, portable x-ray, cath lab, bronchoscop, endoscopy, laparoscopy, 4d ultrasound, digital x-ray, cloroscopy and a CDT scan machine, among others.
Meanwhile, Moreno and Lacuna also led the inauguration of the newly-rehabilitated San Andres Sports Complex. (Baby Cuevas)
