Friday, August 10, 2007 Report on city ‘no direction on health’: councilor By Gil Alfredo B. Severino
COUNCILOR Reynold Iledan has criticized Mayor Evelio Leonardia's State of the City Address (Soca) for allegedly having no direction in prioritizing health.
"It would depend really on people's value system. But as a medical doctor, even if the chairmanship of the health committee was taken away from me, health is still my priority," said Iledan, chairman of the committee on human resources and urban planning.
Iledan was also saddened that the understaffed and underpaid health department was not even mentioned in the last portion of Soca where Leonardia was outlining his future plans.
"Presently, health is recipient of an estimated budget of P64 million budget. It looks big but around P41 million goes to personnel cost, P10 million goes to maintenance and equipment and around P12 million goes to other expenses," Iledan said.
"I do not know where this P12 million 'other expenses' is going. I don't want to speculate either but the disproportion of P41 million personnel cost and P10 million maintenance and equipment is very wide," Iledan added.
Iledan said "in the Soca, there was even no mention of available medicines or the actual state of the P10 million-equipment. There was no mention of dengue management as the rate is rising and with some death cases."
"The Soca, as far as health is concerned was a mere report rather that a presentation of the true 'state' of people's health," Iledan said.
Asked about the City's contribution to the only public hospital, the Corazon L. Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH), Iledan deplored, "We have nine casuals there and the hospital is in terrible shape. I expect a construction of a 24-hour operation primary care hospital at this stage. I was disappointed to have none of these in the SOCA."
"I agree that preventive management at the barangay level must be the priority to somehow decongest CLMMRH in the absence of a primary care hospital. But we only have few underpaid doctors and nurses and health stations are not equipped with facilities," Iledan added.
