Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings builds cancer center in Zambo

ZAMBOANGA CITY -- The Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings, Inc (MPHHI) broke ground Monday a cancer center in this southern port city.

The multi-million facility is the first cancer center to be established by a private hospital here in the Zamboanga Peninsula or Region 9.

“We have been working on this project for some time. Some projects are easy to do. And some are not so easy. This cancer center falls under the second category. But as they say, nothing worth having ever comes easy,” said Ramon Diaz, chief executive officer of MPHHI affiliate West Metro Medical Center (West Metro), during the ground breaking ceremony.

Diaz underscored the importance of access to quality cancer treatment, and that “a cancer center in Zamboanga City and Western Mindanao is definitely worth having”.

“We want to be a hospital that brings to the community services that used to be unavailable, because truly, as our tagline says, West Metro cares,” he added.

Jose Noel Dela Paz, MPHHI Corporate Development director, said the Philippines should have 100 cancer centers citing there should be such kind of facility for every one million population.

“Since Philippines is now at almost 100 million, there should be 100 cancer centers but there are only 47 and they are mostly in the city and urban centers,” dela Paz said.

“Metro Pacific is concentrating on building cancer centers all over the country. We have four so far and this one in Zamboanga City will be our fifth,” he added.

West Metro officials noted that cancer is one of the top three killer diseases in the country, together with the ischemic heart disease and pneumonia.

Out of the almost 600,000 registered deaths in 2016, some 60,470 or 10 percent were due to cancer.

The West Metro Cancer Center is estimated to become operational by the first quarter of 2020.

“We hope to be able to reach out to more cancer patients with this cancer center and we want to strengthen a multidisciplinary approach to treatment in accordance with prevailing standards,” said Dr. April Love Malasig, West Metro Cancer Center medical director.

Specially trained health professionals will man the cancer center, including physicians, nurses, radiation technologists and medical technologists.

West Metro envisions the facility to be a comprehensive cancer center with services catering to treatment of the patient from the time of diagnosis onwards.

“We need to empower physicians on cancer screening because early detection is still the best chance for successful treatment,” Malasig said. (PNA)