After last Wednesday’s groundbreaking rites, Tagbilaran City’s skyline would be different as the construction of a 5 storey building will start this year inside Governor Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital (GCGMH) and Regional Training Center Complex.

This as Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Rossel-Ubial, Assistant Sec. Leonita Gorgolon, Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco, Gallares Hospital Chief Dr. Mutya Kismet Macuno and Gov. Edgar Chatto led the capsule-laying during the groundbreaking of the P555 million new building at Gallares Hospital.

The new building, set at the former tennis court and parking lot of the hospital, would have a 330 bed capacity, with 16 Operating Rooms, an imaging center for the hospitals Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), two Computerized Tomography (CT) scan areas, X-ray, Ultrasound and Mammogram areas, revealed Dr. Macuno.

DOH said the hospital building inside the complex is funded by the government’s Hospital Enhancement Program fund of the health agency and would be implemented by a consortium of contractors.

With the hospital’s tallest structure as the water reservoir, the new 5 storey building would easily dominate the landscape enough to make it a commanding feature in the area.

Contractors and winning bidder EM Cuerpo Construction said that if plans do not derail, the new facility would start serving the public in 2019, even as the new facility would feature an integrated drainage and water provision system.

The new multi-million addition of the Gallares Hospital however raised eyebrows.

For utter lack of space for expansion, government authorities have authorized for the relocation of the Hospital in a bigger space in Cortes town, some 10 kilometers away.

In fact the government has allocated P2.2 billion for its construction according to sources.

The groundbreaking and capsule-laying therefore, has raised a new set of speculations as to the most immediate realization of the relocated Gallares Hospital.

Right after the ground breaking program, local officials escorted the DOH Secretary Ubial and other guests to another ocular inspection of the proposed hospital lot in Cortes.

This is the second week when key members of the Duterte Cabinet arrived in Bohol and inspected the new hospital site in Cortes. (rac/PIA-7/Bohol)