Hospicio de San Pedro

Viewed as the oldest Catholic-run hospital in the region, the history of San Pedro Hospital dates to prewar times when five Dominican nuns from Canada travelled to Davao at the invitation of the PME Fathers, the missionary priests from Quebec, Canada, to establish a medical institution.

The Dominican Sisters led by Sr. Pauline Guilmette, O.P. (Sr. Marie de St. Paul), left Quebec on May 15, 1948, and arrived in Manila on June 8, 1948. She was accompanied by Sr. Marie St. Pierre (Sr. Cecile Denis), Sr. Gabrielle de L’Annonciation (Sr. Rita Blais), Sr. Balance Marie (Sr. Therese Naud), and Sr. Pauline Therese (Sr. Therese Corriveau).

Upon arrival in Davao, the sisters, with help from the Canadian fathers, started in earnest the search for a medical institute to take over. At the time, Hospicio de San Pedro, a two-story sickbay owned by Dr. Alfredo Rivera, was having internal issues when it was offered for purchase. Originally, the sanatorium was located at San Pedro corner Legaspi Streets, two blocks away from Brokenshire Memorial Hospital and Davao Provincial Hospital.

In 1949, the hospital was transferred to Constancio Guzman Street, on a site adjacent to the PME Retreat House. A single-story wooden structure was built to host 50 beds. With its clientele expanding, the old structure had to give way later to a multi-story, concrete edifice.

On March 19, 1965, the feast of St. Joseph, the groundbreaking of the new building was held. Four years later, on February 11, 1969, the new hospital, with a 350-bed capacity, was inaugurated. Today, the sickbay has a capacity of 295 beds and 20 bassinets.

The hospital has always embraced a three-fold mission: (i) to provide the best quality and compassionate health care services in satisfying all individuals with reverence and respect of their person; (ii) to deliver quality satisfying services expected of a training health care institution; and (iii) to witness as a community, the mercy and compassion of a loving God in the performance of individual and communal responsibility.

The sanitorium, moreover, is owned and managed by the Dominican Sisters of the Trinity, while its Board of trustees is comprised of ten members. The president of the corporation acts as the administrator of the medical institution.

With the hospital’s growth, the need for more medical workers, especially nurses, to staff the health institution was slowly felt. Inspired by this development, Bishop Clovis Thibault, PME, then Davao prelate, shared his idea of opening a Catholic nursing school in 1954 to Sr. Pauline who showed interest in the plan. Consequently, on October 3, 1955, the sisters acquired a lot adjacent to the hospital as future home of the proposed nursing school.

To put on track the school plan, documents and papers necessary for opening the school was promptly filed with the Bureau of Private Schools which, in April 1956, granted a temporary permit to open the San Pedro Hospital School of Nursing. While the requirements were still processed, the sisters, with help from contacts in the religious communities, started recruiting doctors and nurses to join the faculty. The frenzied mission to finally start the school was described in the August 29, 2006, Manila Bulletin article (‘San Pedro College of Davao’):

Nursing graduates from Luzon, Visayas, as well as some doctors and nurses from the hospital joined the roster of faculty. Amanda Trinidad, a former faculty of the Velez Hospital [of Cebu City] became the first principal of the school while Sr. Pauline Guilmette, OP, was director. Required number of books in the library was met through donations from the Ateneo d Davao University while laboratory supplies and equipment were obtained both from Manila and the United States. The opening of the school also led to the expansion of the hospital from 50 to 100-bed capacity to cater the related learning experiences of the students.

Initially, 200 students applied for enrolment but only a fourth, i.e., 48, were admitted. Of those who were accepted, only 29 completed the Nursing course and all passed the licensure exam in 1959. Given this first-time achievement of turning all its first batch into licensed nurses, the government granted the school that same year the recognition to operate a three-year graduate course in Nursing. Eventually, as the school enrolment expanded, its name was changed to San Pedro College of Davao.

Today, the coed institution has seven undergraduate departments, five of these in health sciences, and a single graduate division in its original campus, aside from administering a satellite basic education campus at Ulas. The departments offer courses in Nursing, Pharmacy, Physical Therapy, Respiratory Therapy, and Medical Technology. Additionally, it offers doctorate and masteral programs.