Philippine Heart Center

Background

The Philippine Heart Center is a hospital specializing in the treatment of heart ailments. It has rooms for paying patients and charity patients and admits more than 14,000 patients every year, including 3,300 that undergo heart surgery. It holds regular training programs for medical professionals. It as one of the busiest congenital heart surgery centers in Asia, according to its website. It is currently headed by cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Avenilo L. Aventura, Jr.

History

The Philippine Heart Center was established through Presidential Decree No. 673 issued by president Ferdinand E. Marcos on February 14, 1975. The building is identified with what is referred to as the Marcoses' "edifice complex," defined by architect Gerard Lico as "an obsession and compulsion to build edifices as a hallmark of greatness." The hospital was built using 50% of the national health budget, according to Senator Jose W. Diokno, "while around the country, Filipinos were dying of curable illnesses like TB [tuberculosis], whooping cough, and dysentery."

Its original name was the Philippine Heart Center for Asia and was changed to its current form in 1975. The first patient to be admitted to the PHC was Imelda Francisco, on April 14, 1975.

Cardiovascular specialists including Christiaan Barnard, Denton Cooley, Donald Effler, and Charles Bailey practised there. The first Director of the PHC was Avenilo P. Aventura (1974–1986), a cardiovascular surgeon who performed many pioneering operations in the Philippines including the first successful renal transplantation in 1970, the first CABG in 1972, and developed and implanted the first ASEAN bioprosthesis, the PHCA porcine valve.

In 2014, the Philippine Heart Center was given a Qmentum International Gold Accreditation for August 2014 – 2017 by Accreditation Canada International for "excellence in hospital practices and safety.

On June 13, 2024, Marcos, Jr. appointed Avenilo "Jun" L. Aventura Jr. M.D. as PHC's Executive Director.

Architecture and design

The hospital building was designed by Filipino architect Jorge Ramos in what has been described as a Brutalist style. It was built in 1975 with a reported cost of almost US$50 million. It was co-founded by Dr. Ludgerio D. Torres.

References

References

1. (2020). "Policy Analysis on Determining Hospital Bed Capacity in Light of Universal Health Care". Acta Medica Philippina.
2. (March 19, 1975). "Creating the Philippine Heart Center for Asia". [[Official Gazette (Philippines).
3. Pagaduan-Araullo, Carol. (March 28, 2016). "Philippine health care system, from bad to worse". BusinessWorld.
4. "Welcome to PHC".
5. "Philippine Heart Center Annual Report 2013". Philippine Heart Center.
6. "Mandate".
7. "Officials".
8. (September 20, 2012). "Masagana 99, Nutribun, and Imelda's 'edifice complex' of hospitals". [[GMA News Online]].
9. Afinidad-Bernardo, Deni Rose M.. "Edifice complex {{!}} 31 years of amnesia". [[The Philippine Star]].
10. Santos, Roselle. (November 9, 2006). "Book Review: Edifice Complex: Power, Myth, and the Marcos State Architecture by Gerard Lico : Philippine Art, Culture and Antiquities".
11. (May 13, 2011). ""To Sing Our Own Song" (1983)". The Diokno Foundation.
12. (February 20, 1975). "Granting to Dr. Charlies Bailey, Dr. Donald Effler, Dr. Delton Cooley, Dr. Christian Barnard and Dr. Martines Bordiu the Right to Exercise Certain Privileges Appertaining to Philippine Citizens". [[Official Gazette (Philippines).
13. "Philippine Heart Center — Excellence, Expertise and Experience". PHC.
14. Aventura, Avenilo P.. (December 1998). "Clinical Performance of the Philippine Heart Center Bioprosthetic Heart Valve". Philippine Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.
15. "Philippine Heart Center Annual Report 2014". Philippine Heart Center.
16. (June 13, 2024). "Palace bares new PBBM appointees". [[Philippine News Agency]].
17. Villa, Kathleen de. (September 16, 2017). "Imelda Marcos and her 'edifice complex'". Philippine Daily Inquirer.
18. Reyes, Anthea. (September 21, 2017). "Looks like the Marcoses were Brutalists by choice". NOLISOLI.
19. Garcia, Myles A.. (2016). "Thirty years later... : catching up with the Marcos-era crimes". MAG Publishing.