In the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, a motley group of topnotch surgeons, a business magnate, contractors, and a lawyer got together over cups of coffee and started pondering, planning and later on executing how it can help the community cope with the effects of the plague.
Thus the birth of a Department of Health -accredited molecular laboratory – Parkway Medical and Diagnostic Center at Bakakeng – the first private coronavirus testing laboratory in Luzon which boosted the all sector-medical response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Two and a half or more years after, they thought that the work was done and each would go on their own paths. They cleared out their obligations, financial or otherwise, but then the core started toying with the idea of a hospital which would offer quality but affordable health care service to our people and offer sublime standards in clinical care, research and medical education handled by the very best healthcare professionals. Thus, the rebirth of Parkway, this time of residences and hospital as its new endeavor.
Barely three years after its initial conception, the Parkway Medical Center at Legarda Road will open on July 1 an ambulatory clinic and will offer outpatient services to include a rehab center for physical therapy, speech occupational therapy, electroencephalogram – a medical test to measure the electrical activity of the brain and helps diagnose health conditions including epilepsy, sleep disorders or brain tumors; a heart station for ECG (2D echocardiography or 2D echo) – a non-invasive test used to analyze the functioning of the heart and its section, extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy, a non-invasive therapy to break up stones in the kidney and ureter.
Other services will follow as the other equipment arrives.
Full operation of the center is projected on 2028 but as more equipment are delivered like the Karl Storz 4 K Rubina laparoscopic machine and tower, the rehab equipment (set up at the ambulatory OR) and the hysteroscope from Germany arrives, the center would slowly offer its services using these equipment.
Upon full operation, Parkway would be the ultimate hospital center outside Metro Manila – at par with St. Luke’s, Makati Medical Center, Medical City or Cardinal Santos hospitals.
It would have the best and modern hospital equipment, 200-bed capacity.
As part of its social responsibility, will offer a minimum of 10 percent discount for charity cases.
It will also offer services not available in any hospital in the north among others, PET CT (positron emission tomography-computed tomography scan) used to diagnose diseases like cancer, plan treatment, or find out how well treatment works.
The center will also have a dementia clinic, fertility clinic, pulmonary laboratory, infection control and antimicrobial stewardship, outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy – community-based management of an infection via the administration of an intravenous antimicrobial without an overnight hospital stay, and a bariatric and metabolic (weight loss) surgery.
Hand-in-hand, the Parkway Residences with 294 condominium units, 27 commercial units, 84 clinic spaces and 132 total parking spaces will be completed by the end of December 2025 and expected to complement the influx of doctors and health workers, patients or those who prefer condo-living in style.
The core group and incorporators of Parkway Medical Center and Residences who poured in and continue to pour-in blood, sweat, tears and resources in the endeavor is a combination of medical specialists and men who are leading leaders in their own industry – Drs. Sherry Ong-Cunanan, Sammy C. Cunanan, Samuel Ang, Noli V. Velasquez, Francis B. Yabut, taipan Fernando S. Tiong, triple A contractors Ericson Felipe, Arnold Tolding, Brandy Abeya, Arnel Piel and yours truly.
They are the heart and soul of Parkway Medical Center and Residences serving Baguio and its surrounding areas with a heart.
Sigh.
July 7, 2024
