The facility is presently a secondary hospital.
Mayor Pedro Acharon Jr. said they expect the city hospital's new two-storey building, constructed at P10 million, to be completed by August this year.
He said the new facility will house at least 42 private and six semi-private rooms as well as modern medical equipment and laboratories.
"Our goal is to develop the city hospital as one of the city government's main economic enterprises by opening more medical services and catering to more paying patients," he said.
The expansion of the city hospital is part of the reforms launched by the city government last year to make it into an economic enterprise, a tertiary hospital and one of most sought-after wellness facilities in South Cotabato, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat and General Santos or the Socsksargen area.
Acharon said the city has invested substantially during the past several months on personnel and service-capability buildup by bringing in additional "diplomates, specialists, and medical experts on family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine, obstetrics, ob-gynecology, surgery, nutrition, medical technology, radiology, pharmacology, anesthesia, orthopedics, radiology, and pathology plus providers of nursing services and ancillary services."
"The hospital now offers fully automated laboratory operations and an expanded range of services covering clinical chemistry, hematology and immunology. A planned dialysis center is also in the pipeline," he said.
To complement these developments, he said the city government allotted at least P29.4 million for the purchase of quality medical supplies and medicines.
Acharon said the city also recently released some P12 million to augment its indigent hospitalization program and the Philhealth cards “para sa masa” program.