Thursday, July 26, 2007 Probe from DOH, lobby from Gwen and Macias
HEALTH Secretary Francisco Duque has asked the Department of Health 7 to investigate the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) over audit findings indicating irregularities in the hospital’s operations.
Duque told radio dyLA yesterday that he will task DOH 7 Director Susana Madarieta to form a committee that will investigate VSMMC in relation to the Commission on Audit (COA) report.
“I will entrust her to look into it expeditiously,” said Duque, noting that the investigation will be the basis for administrative or criminal charges, if necessary.
The controversy over VSMMC, meanwhile, has revived the move for the hospital to let go of its primary and secondary health services to focus on tertiary services.
This time, it will not only be Cebu Province that will push for the move. Governors of Bohol, Cebu, Siquijor, and Negros Oriental are cooperating to push the hospital to focus on tertiary services.
The issue has become an avenue for cooperation between Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and Negros Oriental Gov. Emilio Macias.
The two had tangled earlier over the bills to carve smaller provinces out of Cebu. Garcia accused then congressman Macias of railroadings the bills.
Garcia said the governors were not aware of the audit report when Macias raised to her his complaints on the facility during the assembly of governors in Manila last Tuesday.
Macias, a doctor, reportedly spoke of how the VSMMC could not attend to tertiary services of patients from the other provinces. Being a regional hospital, he said, the VSMMC should not focus on primary and secondary services because these are being offered in the provincial hospitals of their provinces.
Macias invited Garcia to visit Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital to strengthen their “newfound congenial and friendly atmosphere” so they can find a solution to the problems at the VSMMC. Garcia plans to go there as soon as possible with Integrated Provincial Health Office Chief Cristina Giango.
Siquijor Gov. Orlando Fua Jr. and Bohol’s Erico Aumentado will also meet with Garcia soon about the matter.
Garcia said she informed Macias and Fua of the DOH’s earlier offer for the Capitol to handle the primary and secondary services, which was met with “rabid opposition” from doctors.
After learning of the COA report, Garcia said, “After all, the violent opposition was never about the good of the majority but of business and financial interests of the few.”
“It was either by choice or by design that the all too important primary and secondary services were so passionately embraced that they refused to let go, as these need the laboratory services and drugs commonly available at the pharmacies across,” said Garcia.
Now, Garcia said, “I see a meeting of minds by the governors in the region.”
Meanwhile, hospital officials said that even before the COA findings became public, VSMMC already started to conduct biddings for hospital supplies.
VSMMC Chief Dr. Gerardo Aquino Jr., before leaving for Manila, told Sun.Star Cebu last Tuesday that medical supplies undergo public bidding even if only one supplier has indicated an interest to bid.
Aquino was not at the hospital yesterday when sought for comment on the issue that most of the P80 million purchases for VSMMC in 2006 did not pass the bidding.
Dr. Emmanuel Gines, chairman of the VSMMC media relations committee, echoed Aquino’s statement about the public bidding.
In fact, said Gines, some complains against Aquino are centered on the delay of the medical supplies because everything goes under public bidding.
When asked if this is an admission that there was no bidding under the past administration, Eleodoro Mongaya Jr., VSMMC public information officer, said that there were public biddings.
The COA report was an audit during the administration of former VSMMC Chief Filomena delos Santos. Aquino came into office only last December.
Mongaya commented that the hospital is now under “trial by publicity” after the “confidential” COA report became public.
While there was such a report, Mongaya explained that it was a “confidential” report because the hospital was still supposed to file an answer.
The management was yet to reply on the COA report since those noted by the state auditors are still being investigated.
After the VSMMC hands its response to COA, the state auditors would then have their formal recommendations to the hospital, said Mongaya.
While the VSMMC investigation is “ongoing,” the reply of the hospital to the COA report is yet to be finished because of the bulky attachments that would support their answer, including matters on public bidding.
“It’s just like due process where we (VSMMC) will also be given the occasion to answer the allegations,” he said.
On issues of several VSMMC doctors recommending laboratory examinations at private centers rather than the hospital laboratory, Duque said that this should not be allowed because it is a conflict of interest, especially if the recommending doctor owns a diagnostic center.
Mongaya, meanwhile, denied rumors that it was Aquino, himself, who instigated the audit.
“It’s really ironic...If Dr. Aquino commissioned the audit, he won’t take full responsibility. It’s like shooting his own foot,” said Mongaya.
Aquino had said that though the transactions happened before his term, he is taking full responsibility for it. COA, Mongaya said, conducts regular audit of government agencies.
He lamented, though, that the entire VSMMC has been affected by controversy.
“Unsay too, ang empleyado sa Sotto (VSMMC), kawatan?” Mongaya asked. (JGA/JPM)
