St. Luke’s Medical Center Inc. is moving the target opening of its third hospital in Aseana in Parañaque to 2031, two years later than its original projection of 2029.
Dennis P. Serrano, the hospital’s CEO, said the plans are already in place for the St. Luke’s Aseana, which will cost about P12 billion to build.
‘It’s going to be the same size as BGC [Bonifacio Global City]. It’s about 500 beds. We’re winding up on our design phase for our Asiana Hospital,’ Serrano said. ‘We’re hoping to start construction by September of next year. But we’re building in a reclaimed area. So, even before we start construction, there has to be a lot of piling that has to be done.’
‘And it’s peculiar to build in Aseana. You can’t dig down because it’s reclaimed land. You can’t build too high up because you’re very near the airport.’
Serrano said the hospital will start hiring people in 2028, training them in its two medical centers in Quezon City and in Taguig so that the new facility will have necessary talent when it opens in about six years.
‘It’s a big project. But we’ve done it before in (Bonifacio) Global City, obviously, which opened in 2010,’ Serrano said. ‘(Our personnel) should be already very well trained by the time the hospital opens its doors.’
Serrano, who has 15 years of experience in robotic surgery, said the hospital is in the planning stage.
‘We are in the age of artificial intelligence. We are in the age of precision medicine, molecular medicine, molecular oncology.
‘And there’s an explosion of all of these new technologies. But we really have to navigate through all of that. We’re also in the age of digital transformation,’ he said.
St. Luke’s has completed over 2,500 robotic surgeries, the highest number of robotic-assisted procedures performed by any hospital in the country.
This achievement was certified by DTG Medical Inc., which affirmed St. Luke’s position as the hospital with the highest number of robotic-assisted surgeries in the Philippines.