The Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP) ( fil, Ospital ng Pilipinas sa may sakit sa Baga) is a government
tertiary hospital
A tertiary referral hospital (also called a tertiary hospital, tertiary referral center, tertiary care center, or tertiary center) is a hospital that provides tertiary care, which is a level of health care obtained from specialists in a large ho ...
specializing in the
cure
A cure is a substance or procedure that ends a medical condition, such as a medication, a surgical operation, a change in lifestyle or even a philosophical mindset that helps end a person's sufferings; or the state of being healed, or cured. The ...
and
prevention
Prevention may refer to:
Health and medicine
* Preventive healthcare, measures to prevent diseases or injuries rather than curing them or treating their symptoms
General safety
* Crime prevention, the attempt to reduce deter crime and crimi ...
of lung and other chest diseases, located on
Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
,
Quezon City
Quezon City (, ; fil, Lungsod Quezon ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read in Filipino as Kyusi), is the List of cities in the Philippines, most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a populatio ...
,
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
. The center receives budgetary support for its operations from the national government. It was constructed on public land donated by the
National Housing Authority.
The Lung Center has a hospital bed capacity of 210.
History
The LCP was established on January 16, 1981, by President
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martial ...
under ''Presidential Decree No. 1823'' as a non-profit non-stock corporation.
The building is identified with what is referred to as the Marcoses' "
edifice complex
The term "edifice complex" was coined in the 1970s to describe Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos' practice of using publicly funded construction projects as political and election propaganda.
Built with a Brutalist architectural style, perhap ...
," defined by architect Gerard Lico as "an obsession and compulsion to build edifices as a hallmark of greatness."
The Lung Center was placed under the administration of the Ministry of Health (now
Department of Health
A health department or health ministry is a part of government which focuses on issues related to the general health of the citizenry. Subnational entities, such as states, counties and cities, often also operate a health department of their ow ...
) by President
Corazon Aquino
Maria Corazon "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (; ; January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was a Filipina politician who served as the 11th president of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992. She was the most prominent figure of the 1986 People P ...
on July 29, 1986, under ''
Executive Order No. 34''.
The purpose of its creation was to provide
health care
Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...
that specifically targets
lung
The lungs are the primary organs of the respiratory system in humans and most other animals, including some snails and a small number of fish. In mammals and most other vertebrates, two lungs are located near the backbone on either side of t ...
and
pulmonary disease
Respiratory diseases, or lung diseases, are pathological conditions affecting the organs and tissues that make gas exchange difficult in air-breathing animals. They include conditions of the respiratory tract including the trachea, bronchi, bron ...
.
A fire on May 16, 1998, destroyed much of the LCP's build and equipment. The fire, which started on 2:20 a.m., claimed 11 lives with nine more missing.
Calixto Zaldivar
Calixto Oriola Zaldivar (September 13, 1904 – October 13, 1979) was a Filipino lawyer and politician who was a Supreme Court Justice from 1964 to 1974 best known in Philippine history for being one of only four dissenting voices against the cons ...
, the director of the Lung Center of the Philippines, was
indicted
An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of an ...
on October 19, 1999, for
criminal negligence
In criminal law, criminal negligence is a surrogate state of mind required to constitute a ''conventional'' (as opposed to ''strictly liable'') offense. It is not, strictly speaking, a (Law Latin for "guilty mind") because it refers to an ob ...
. He was accused of ignoring advice from fire inspectors to install safety equipment at the Lung Center.
The Lung Center of the Philippines was reopened on March 1, 1999, and a new LCP building partly funded by its fire insurance began construction.
The Lung Center runs one of three monitoring stations run under an air quality monitoring project in
Metro Manila
Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the capital region, seat of government and one of three List of metrop ...
.
References
External links
Official Website of the Lung Center of the Philippines
Hospitals in Quezon City
Hospitals established in 1981
Government-owned and controlled corporations of the Philippines
Buildings and structures in Quezon City
Lung disease organizations
{{Philippines-hospital-stub