Monday, February 04, 2008 ‘Merging hospitals to improve service’
THE district hospital in Daanbantayan town may be one of the hospitals affected by the Capitol’s plan to integrate closely-situated district hospitals.
Rep. Benhur Salimbangon (Cebu Province, 4th district) said Daanbantayan district hospital may be merged with the Severo Verallo Memorial Hospital in Bogo City.
Daanbantayan Vice Mayor Ma. Luisa Loot called it a disadvantage to the municipality, but said she will bow to the Provincial Government’s plan. She has yet to get confirmation of the plan, though.
Bogo lies 101 kilometers north of Cebu City. Daanbantayan, the northernmost tip of the province, is some 27 kilometers north of Bogo and is separated from it by two towns.
Integrated Provincial Health Office chief Dr. Cristina Giango also said that the Capitol is still finalizing the list of hospitals to be integrated and refused to confirm if Daanbantayan will be affected.
Salimbangon said the district hospital in Daanbantayan is not really necessary and that more patients from the fourth district go to Bogo.
“It is a losing option but the staff will be used to augment the Verallo hospital,” said Salimbangon.
He also explained that the Daanbantayan municipal health office can handle minor medical problems.
“We have to maximize our resources. At Verallo, it’s always crammed with patients,” he also said.
He plans to expand the 50-bed hospital to a 100-bed capacity hospital. Salimbangon noted that Verallo attends to an average of 106 patients every day.
“If you ask me, that is a disadvantage to us but we cannot stop the governor’s program,” Loot told Sun. Star Cebu yesterday.
She hopes to keep the structure, though, if ever plans of merging her town’s district hospital with Verallo push through.
Loot said the municipality can take over management of the district hospital until it proves to be a burden to them.
The municipality owns the lot that the district hospital is built on.
Loot would have to propose the plan to Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and see what the latter thinks about it.
Garcia earlier announced plans of integrating hospitals that are closely located, saying that maintaining them has become financially inefficient for the Province. Higher-capacity hospitals will absorb the smaller ones.
The Capitol is spending P200 million for at least 16 district hospitals in Cebu.
Around five district hospitals were identified for consolidation, but the governor refused to identify them in public as they might resort to panic. She did assure that employees would be absorbed.
The long-term goal of the Province is privatization, not only because private managers have more technical experience and expertise, but also because this will save the government maintenance and other operating expenses and capital outlay.
District hospitals were transferred from the national to local governments in 1992, as part of the Local Government Code’s mandate to devolve national agencies and functions to local communities. (JGA)
