MANILA, Philippines — San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora and senator JV Ejercito again traded statements over the condition of the San Juan Medical Center after the city government announced new hospital upgrades worth P554 million while critics questioned the facility’s present state.
Zamora, in a statement released Friday evening, May 7, said the city government had already secured funding for additional medical equipment and facility improvements at SJMC.
The planned upgrades include the hospital’s first MRI machine, a new CT scan machine, emergency room renovations to Level 3 standards, electrical rehabilitation works, three new ambulances, an 11-station hemodialysis center, a blood bank, and an expanded surgical wing.
“These are not just promises. These are the improvements that already have funding and are now undergoing the procurement process,” Zamora said.
The mayor maintained that SJMC was in a “deeply neglected state” when he assumed office in 2019, saying the hospital had remained a Level 1 facility for 18 years with revoked PhilHealth accreditation, limited services, and inadequate facilities.
He also claimed that some medical equipment purchased under the previous administration had remained unopened and unusable because of unfinished infrastructure and unresolved electrical requirements.
Zamora said the hospital has since been upgraded into a Department of Health Level 2 licensed hospital, while PhilHealth accreditation was restored in 2020 and Zero Balance Billing was implemented for San Juaneños.
He added that bed capacity increased from 90 to 150, while the workforce expanded from 186 personnel in 2019 to 516 employees today.
Senator JV Ejercito, however, said several hospital projects and upgrades cited by Zamora had already been initiated under the previous administration.
“The new SJMC building, the equipment for hospital expansion, the CT scan, mammography machine, upgraded wards, blood bank equipment, and the groundwork for the Level 2 upgrade were already initiated by the previous administration,” Ejercito said in a separate statement Friday evening.
Ejercito said no one was denying that improvements had been made at SJMC over the past seven and a half years, but argued that the current administration should already focus on accountability for the hospital’s present condition.
“The people are no longer asking for excuses. They are asking for results,” he said.
He also claimed that patients continue to raise concerns over the actual condition and services of the hospital.
“The bottom line is that SJMC has deteriorated over the past several years under the Zamora administration,” Ejercito added.
