Sunday, August 12, 2007 Senator backs Capitol plan to run VSMMC
SEN. Pia Cayetano, who chairs the Senate committee on health, supports the plan to devolve the primary, secondary and some of the tertiary services of Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) to the Cebu Capitol.
Cayetano paid a courtesy call on Gov. Gwen-dolyn Garcia yesterday and discussed how they could help barangay health workers, whom she described as front liners in health services.
Although they did not discuss the transfer of VSMMC services to the local government, Cayetano said she is willing to talk about this with the governor in their next meeting.
“There are several pros and cons to devolution but at the end of the day, I support devolution,” Cayetano said.
But she also pointed out that not all local government executives focus on health services.
She said she admired Garcia for expressing willingness to take responsibility for running the VSMMC as what it provided for in the law, because a lot of local government units refused to do the same.
“Here’s a governor who is willing to do it. We should support such initiative,” the senator said.
Cayetano inspected the VSMMC last Friday and she admitted that the state of the hospital is similar to other facilities in the country that lacked funds.
This is among the reasons barangay health workers should be given enough attention, as they are the ones catering to the grassroots communities, said Cayetano.
This way, simple cases need not be brought to the hospitals where they would only add to the congestion. (MBG)
