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Sunday, December 28, 2003
CCMC gets Vidal’s nod
By MIA E. ABELLANA
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
A YEAR after pleading with Mayor Tomas Osmeña to keep the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) open, Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal noted many changes in the hospital.
Vidal, who visited all the patients yesterday, told Sun.Star that the place was definitely better compared with its situation last year.
“It’s very clean now. The patients are well placed. And even if there are two in one bed, it’s not dirty like before,” a delighted Vidal said.
The cardinal also noted the absence of a foul smell when he walked through the corridors.
The hospital staff, he said, deserved to be congratulated for the noticeable improvements.
Last year, Osmeña threatened to close the hospital over the reported inefficiency of its personnel and allegations of anomalies in the purchase of medical supplies.
He gave the hospital six months to shape up or face closure.
However, he later changed his mind and appointed a management team to supervise the hospital.
The mayor had lauded the management team and CCMC hospital chief Dr. Felicitas Manaloto, whom he asked to postpone her retirement for a year, for a “remarkable job.”
Better benefits for the staff and improved hospital services can be expected from CCMC, with the assurance of financial support from City Hall.
Welcome surprise
Tears and smiles were on the faces of the patients, as Vidal blessed each one of them and distributed cards that can be redeemed for bundles of joy.
Nelson Alvarito, 71, could not stop crying after Vidal blessed him and told him to take care.
“I could not believe he visited us. I was so surprised,” he said in Cebuano.
Alvarito spent Christmas Day in the hospital after suffering from a heart attack at dawn.
He was supposed to be confined at the intensive care unit but no bed was available for him there.
Alvarito was with 10 other patients in another ward.
Macrina Abatayo, 51, was moved to tears after the University of the Visayas Chorale sang Christmas songs as they moved from one ward to another.
Abatayo, a diabetic, suffered from high blood pressure and was confined last Wednesday afternoon.
“It’s not easy to be confined here. It’s seldom that we get visitors,” she said after Vidal handed her a card.
Spreading cheer
Edgardo Descatiar, 29, was so eager to meet the 72-year-old cardinal that he did not wait for Vidal to reach his bed.
Though a bit weak, Descatiar got up and greeted the prelate.
“I’m so happy to meet him because I’m not from the city,” he said, saying he came all the way from Bantayan Island.
Descatiar brought his son to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center to have a broken leg treated last week.
Unfortunately, he began to suffer from appendicitis and was taken to the CCMC.
Descatiar and his wife felt especially lonely at the hospital because they were not able to spend Christmas with their four children who are in the island.
The atmosphere in the OB ward was more festive, as mothers proudly showed Vidal their newborn babies.
The ward was slightly cramped, as some mothers had to share a bed.
But they were all jubilant, saying that aside from their new bundle, the cardinal gave them one more.
CCMC chaplain Fr. Butch Malana was as glad as the patients.
He told Sun.Star that he was happy to see Vidal going from one ward to another talking to each of the patients.
He was also grateful to the Cebu City Medical Indigency Foundation Inc., which sponsored the activity.
(December 28, 2003 issue)
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