The Aurora Hill Health Center dubbed by the Department of Health as the Cordillera’s first “super health center” has been inaugurated last Jan. 25.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong, who pursued the project with the DOH, said the facility will serve as a benchmark for all other district health centers in the city.
Magalong led the inaugural along with Soledad Go, representing Rep. Mark Go, Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda; DOH-CAR Regulations, Licensing and Enforcement Division Chief Virginia Narciso, City Health Officer Rowena Galpo, and Aurora Hill Health Center Medical Officer IV Marie Therese Sumbillo, along with Punong Barangay May Gonzales and Rafael Valencia of 911-on-Call.
The DOH-CAR said the super health center, with a 1,200-square meter floor area and stands on a 700-square meter land, was built in 2021 through an P18 million funding from the city government and P10M from the DOH’s Health Facilities Enhancement Program.
“Built during the early 1950s as a one-story building, the Aurora Hill Health Center was one of the first health centers established in Baguio City. Through the years, the structure has become a base for services that are geared towards maternal and childcare nutrition and sanitation,” the DOH-CAR said.
“After its reconstruction in 2021, the Aurora Hill Health Center is now the biggest and most modern health center in the city that will provide primary health care services, birthing clinic, a function hall that may be converted into an isolation area if needed, pharmacy, clinical laboratory, X-ray services and ambulatory services,” it added.
It serves 13 barangays with a catchment population of 21,000.
Galpo said the facility “is not just a building but a symbol of Universal Health Care in action.”
The DOH said that under the Universal Health Care law, “health centers, as primary care providers, are mandated to deliver health services” in line with the program’s “planned paradigm shift to primary care.” – Aileen P. Refuerzo
