SM Foundation opens its first Felicidad T. Sy Mother and Child Care Center
New mothers of Tala community in Caloocan City can now avail of prenatal and postnatal services through the newly constructed Felicidad T. Sy (FTS) Mother and Child Care Center at the Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital.
The Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital (DJNRMH), formerly Central Luzon Sanitarium (Tala Health Center), became operational in 1940 to serve patients suffering from Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) in Central Luzon. Due to the decrease of leprosy cases, the DJNRMH opened its doors to provide general medical assistance to its surrounding communities in 1970. The hospital serves the Tala community, namely barangays 185, 186, 187 and 188 of Caloocan.
“The DJNRMH-FTS Mother and Child Care Center is SM Foundation’s 93rd health facility under our Felicidad T. Sy Wellness Program,” said Connie Angeles, SM Foundation Executive Director for Medical and Health Programs. “This is part of the Foundation’s commitment in taking care of the communities where its malls reside.”
SM Foundation has been either constructing, renovating, and/or rehabilitating old and dilapidated health facilities into FTS Centers since 2002. SM Foundation also handles the maintenance and upkeep of completed health centers. Areas specifically chosen are communities where SM properties and malls are present.
Angeles continued, “This is SM Foundation’s first-ever Felicidad T. Sy Mother and Child Care Center. Included in the newly-renovated facility are a mother and child-friendly ward, lounge, breastfeeding area, delivery, and labor room, laboratory, newborn hearing and screening room, family planning unit as well as gender-sensitive comfort rooms.”
The bid to turn the medical center into a mother-and-child-friendly facility is the joint response of the DJNRMH and SM Foundation to the government’s Millennium Development Goals of reducing maternal deaths and decreasing infant mortality by 2015.
“With this new addition, the women of Tala and surrounding marginalized communities are now provided with adequate medical support including prenatal and postnatal care.” Angeles added, “From children to the elderly and even to our brothers and sisters in the military, SM Foundation provides them with the medical care they need.”
“This Mother and Child Care Center is another milestone in the history of the Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital.” Dr. Fatima Rosario Dasalla, MD, head of OB Department, said. “Through this new facility, we will be able to serve more pregnant women and children in our hospitals.”
By end 2014, SM Foundation has renovated and rehabilitated 13 health centers into FTS Wellness Centers including the Yolanda-devastated Tabontabon Rural Health Center in Leyte. By the first quarter of 2015, the Foundation will inaugurate its 100th FTS Center to date.
