Presence of SM stores ensures health, wellness of their communities

The SM Foundation is reaching out to Filipinos who are in need by employing the wide reach of the extensive network of the SM Group through its many malls, stores and business establishments spread throughout the country.

Through the Felicidad T. Sy (FTS) Wellness Program, SM Foundation renovates and improves health facilities for soldiers and policemen, like the improvement now being undertaken for the soldiers’ hospital at the Naval Education and Training Command in San Antonio, Zambales. The hospital was formerly known as the Naval Station Leovigildo Gantioqui Hospital.

The FTS program started in 2002. Through it, SM Foundation has ensured the health and well-being of communities near SM malls by adopting and rehabilitating old and dilapidated health institutions and hospital wards.

Under the program, FTS Wellness Centers, composed of multi-health centers, pediatric wards, hospice units, senior citizen centers and health facilities for military and police personnel were put up.

FTS centers not only provide medical aid but also cater to the emotional needs of patients through the creation of a better environment for healing and recuperation.

In the Zambales hospital, priority was given to the improvement of the emergency and consultation facilities, including male and female observation wards.

The radiology, pharmacy, pantry and supply, toilet and administration facilities were also improved under the SM Foundation project.

According to Connie Angeles, SMFI executive director for Health & Wellness, the foundation has also committed maintenance funding for the hospital every three years, or as the need arises.

Aside from the Zambales hospital, the Heroes, Orthopedic & Convalescence Wards of the AFP General Hospital, the Camp Aguinaldo out-patient department, the Emilio Aguinaldo Station Hospital, the Villamor out-patient department and pediatric wards and NAVSOG Center in Sangley were among the most recent beneficiaries of the SM Foundation’s soldiers facilities improvement projects.

Also among the beneficiaries of SM Foundation projects are other 14 military and police health facilities in various areas in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao, including the Air Force General Hospital, Fort Magsaysay Hospital and the new dispensaries for the Philippine National Police (PNP)-Special Action Force (SAF).

SM stores such as Savemore and Hypermart contribute to the project by checking on the upkeep of the Naval Station hospital, said Ana Lorraine Azucena, SM City Olongapo assistant mall manager who represented Angeles during the inaugural ceremonies.

Angeles also said in her speech that soldiers sacrifice their lives for the country and it was only fitting that SM Foundation gave them a little help as a way of saying “thank you” to them.

SM Foundation also helped the Naval Station to secure from Philhealth a Level 1 accreditation for soldiers to avail themselves of full medical benefits. The Zambales military hospital, which started with 12 beds, now has a 20-bed capacity, with a plan to expand to 50 beds.
The renovated Naval Station hospital was renamed “The Naval Education and Training Command Station Hospital.”

As a reflection of the cooperation between the SM Group and the military in undertaking the project, the blessing and inauguration of the Naval Training Command hospital and the fifth-anniversary celebration of SM City Olongapo were held simultaneously last December 15.

During the blessing of the hospital, Rear Admiral Narciso A. Vingzon, Jr., Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) commander of the Naval Education and Training Command (NETC), expressed appreciation for the contribution of SM Foundation to the hospital’s renovation and refurbishment.

Vice Admiral Ronald Joseph E. Mercado, Flag Officer In Command of the Navy, who is concurrent chief of the AFP Western Command, said during the ceremony that he hoped another similar facility would rise in the naval station as even Navy personnel are in dire need of health facilities, particularly during physical training when mostly new recruits are overcome by the rigors of training.

He said that the renovated hospital was an early Christmas gift for the Naval Station.

Col. Jocelyn Turla, chief surgeon, said the Naval Station hospital and its patients would benefit from the accreditation that Philhealth will give because this will mean reimbursement of medical expenses incurred by the patients and their dependents.  One of the requirements a hospital must comply with in order to get a license from Philhealth is to have the required number of personnel working in the hospital to achieve standards set by the Department of Health (DoH).

“That is our goal but we still have to have personnel to attain the Department of Health requirement on licensing,” Turla said.
SM Foundation’s health-improvement projects also target poor communities in which SM mall employees monitor the needs of health centers such as a recently turned-over health facility in Pozorrubio, Pangasinan.

This health facility serves mothers and children needing medical care, which the community welcomed because the nearest general hospital for the town is in the capital Dagupan which is several kilometers away. The new health facility is open 24 hours and serves at least 24 barangays, mostly those with marginalized families as residents. The center is also equipped with special wards and examines cases of autism and hydrocephalus, which are diseases common in the area but which require medical specialists.