P20-M allocated for city-run hospital

IN AN effort to upgrade the Cagayan de Oro City-run J.R. Borja Memorial City Hospital in Barangay Carmen, an amount of P20 million has been allocated for the construction of a building that would house the hospital’s laboratories and emergency room.

Councilor Dante Pajo, chair of the City Council committee on health and sanitation, said construction of the building is expected to start anytime this week.

“P2 million of the budget came from the regional office of the Department of Health (DOH),” he said.

In February 2012, the House of Representative approved on third and final reading local bills that promote national health services.

Among those approved is the upgrading and modernization of the J. R. Borja City Memorial City Hospital as an extension hospital of the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC).

Cagayan de Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez (2nd District) earlier filed House Bill 00052 expanding and upgrading NMMC from a 300-bed capacity to 500-bed capacity.

Meanwhile, the City Council approved Tuesday a P4 million allocation to be taken from the lump sum appropriation of the 2012 annual budget for the purchase of a CT Scanner Printer to be used in the hospital.

The CT scan machine was donated last year by a hospital in Korea but has not been used since due to the absence of a printer.

Pajo said finally, indigent patients can now benefit from the CT scan machine.

“The CT scan costs around P60 million so the City Government can save a lot of money since we will only buy the printer,” he said.

Pajo said the computerized tomography, more commonly known by its abbreviated names CT scan or CAT scan, is an X-ray procedure that combines many X-ray images with the aid of a computer to generate cross-sectional views and, if needed, three-dimensional images of the internal organs and structures of the body.

However, Councilor Edgar Cabanlas questioned why it took a year for the council to be informed of the machine’s condition.

Pajo explained it took them long to notify the council since the hospital is still in the process of “placing the machine in order.”

“Now that everything is set, all we need is the printer to make it functional,” he said.