Hospitals in Manila

Metro Manila holds the best hospitals in the Philippines by a distance: four or five private hospitals of a standard you would recognise anywhere, a national referral hospital with around 1,500 beds, and the specialists that the rest of the country refers its difficult cases to. For a traveller the question is therefore almost never whether the care is good enough. It is which hospital you can actually reach, because the metro is sixteen cities joined end to end and the nearest hospital by distance is regularly not the nearest by time.

This page lists the five a visitor is most likely to be taken to or would sensibly choose, one for each of the districts people stay in — Makati, Bonifacio Global City, Ortigas, Quezon City and the Ermita and Malate belt near Rizal Park. Each name opens a full page with the address, the switchboard, a map and what the hospital is like. Details were checked against each hospital’s own website in September 2026; switchboards change, so if a number fails, call 911.

The 5 at a glance

Bed counts are approximate. Tap a name for the full page.

The hospitals

Which hospital should I go to?

Go by district first, standard second — all four private hospitals here are good. Staying in Makati: Makati Medical Center, two blocks behind Greenbelt. In Bonifacio Global City, Taguig or the airport end of town: St. Luke’s Medical Center Global City, the newest and the one most visitors end up at. In Ortigas, Pasig or Mandaluyong: The Medical City on Ortigas Avenue. In Quezon City: St. Luke’s Medical Center Quezon City, the original campus and the first hospital in the country to be internationally accredited. Without insurance or short of money, or in Ermita, Malate or Intramuros: Philippine General Hospital on Taft Avenue, the national referral hospital and much the cheapest serious option. In a life-or-death emergency, the nearest emergency room of the five, or 911.

What will it cost?

Two tiers, far apart. The Philippine General Hospital is a government hospital and charges accordingly: a consultation, basic tests and medicine come to a small fraction of what the private hospitals bill, and its charity wards exist precisely for people who cannot pay. The four private hospitals sit at the top of the Philippine market — still well below what the same treatment costs in Europe, Australia or the United States, but a serious admission with surgery and intensive care runs into hundreds of thousands of pesos, and hospital bills here are itemised down to each dressing and syringe. Ask for a written estimate before any procedure at any of them, and ask again if the plan changes. Doctors’ fees are billed separately from the hospital’s own charges.

Insurance, deposits and paperwork

This is the part that surprises people. Philippine hospitals expect payment to be secured before they admit a patient and the bill settled before they discharge one, and a foreign patient without a guarantee of payment is asked for a deposit at the front — private and public alike. It is normal practice, not a judgement on you, and the way round it is a phone call: ring the 24-hour assistance number on your policy before you go and let the insurer send the hospital a guarantee. St. Luke’s publishes an international-patients service with a multilingual team, The Medical City a ground-floor Medical Concierge desk (8am to 7pm, Monday to Saturday), and Makati Medical Center an HMO Assist desk in Tower 1. None promises to bill a foreign insurer directly — that depends on your insurer’s contracts, so most visitors pay and claim. Carry your passport and policy number, and ask for the itemised bill and an English discharge summary before you leave.

Getting there and ambulances

911 is the single national emergency number for ambulance, police and fire, and the Philippine Red Cross runs its own ambulances on 143. Each of the private hospitals also dispatches from its own switchboard, which is often the faster call if you already know where you want to go, and a hotel front desk will make it for you and give directions in Filipino. For anything that is not an emergency, a Grab car is the practical way to travel: it is cheap, air-conditioned and traceable. Do not attempt a hospital run on a motorbike taxi with an injured person, and do not try to drive yourself in a city you do not know.

Traffic, and getting to a hospital in Metro Manila

The nearest hospital by distance is often not the nearest by time. Ortigas to Bonifacio Global City is eight kilometres and can take an hour on a weekday evening, and EDSA, the road that joins them, is the problem rather than the solution. An ambulance is not automatically the quick way either: in gridlock it moves no faster than the car in front, and drivers do not always clear a lane. So think in sides of the city. Makati and Bonifacio Global City are neighbours, ten to twenty minutes apart when the Kalayaan flyover is moving; Ortigas sits across the Pasig river to the north-east, Quezon City north again, and Ermita and Malate west on the bay. Two more, not listed here: Manila Doctors Hospital in Ermita, and Asian Hospital and Medical Center in Alabang, far south. Rush hour runs roughly 7 to 10 in the morning and 4 to 8 in the evening, and Friday is the worst of the week.

Pharmacies

For a cold, a stomach upset, a rash or sunburn you do not need a hospital. Mercury Drug is the big national chain, with branches in every mall and on most main roads and some open around the clock; Watsons and Southstar Drug are the other two you will see everywhere, and pharmacists speak English. Painkillers, antihistamines, rehydration salts and stomach remedies are sold over the counter. Antibiotics are prescription-only and a pharmacy will ask to see the prescription, so a clinic or hospital visit comes first. Carry any regular medication with you rather than expecting to match it here, and see a doctor if a fever lasts more than a couple of days: dengue is present in Metro Manila and needs a blood test, not a pharmacy.

Manila travel guide / Manila hotels / Manila tourist map / Philippines visa guide / Philippines destinations / Hospitals in Philippines / All hospitals

Travel information, not medical advice.

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