REPUBLIC ACT NO. 1340 - AN ACT AMENDING SECTIONS ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR AND FIVE OF REPUBLIC ACT NUMBERED SEVEN HUNDRED THIRTY-ONE PROVIDING FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NATIONAL CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS FOR THE PURPOSE.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Sections one, two, three, four and five of Republic Act Numbered Seven hundred thirty-one are hereby amended to read as follows:

"SECTION 1. There is hereby established under the Bureau of Hospitals, the National Children's Hospital, which shall be under the management and supervision of a chief who must be a physician of good repute, graduate from a medical college of recognized standing and has for five years engaged in the practice of medicine. The chief of said hospital shall be appointed by the Secretary of Health, upon the recommendation of the Director of Hospitals, and shall receive a compensation of not more than six thousand pesos per annum . The chief of the National Children's Hospital shall have all the powers conferred generally on chiefs of government hospitals.

"SEC. 2. It shall be incumbent upon the National Children's Hospital to render free medical service and give accommodation gratuitously to sick and/or undernourished children, subject to the rules and regulations of the Bureau of Hospitals.

"SEC. 3. The chief of the National Children's Hospital shall have authority to promulgate, with the approval of the Director of Hospitals, such rules and regulations not inconsistent with law, as may be necessary to secure the efficient administration of the hospital and the proper enforcement of laws relating thereto.

"SEC. 4. With the approval of the Director of Hospitals, the chief may allow subsistence, quarters, and laundry service in kind to physicians, nurses or employees serving in the hospital whenever such action seems advisable for the best interest of the public service.

"SEC. 5. Upon the approval of this Act, the existing Indigent Children's Hospital shall be abolished and the personnel and all the files, records, supplies, equipments, properties and other assets and unexpended balances of the appropriation of said hospital shall be transferred to the National Children's Hospital established under the provision hereof."

SEC. 2. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved, June 16, 1955.