SOME P10 million had been donated by the Pampanga Branch of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to Jose B. Lingad Memorial General Hospital (JBLMGH) to help with its medical needs in caring for patients battling the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
PCSO branch manager Maria Lourdes Siscar Soliman personally turned over the said financial assistance to Medical and Professional Staff chief Dr. Alfonso Danac and JBLMGH Finance Department head Joy Flores.
“The P10-Million is part of the PCSO’s P447 million financial grant to 81 government hospitals across the country which is chargeable to the Agency’s Charity Fund under its Calamity Assistance Program (CAP) budget,” Flores said.
She said the coverage of the assistance is specifically limited to Covid-19 cases and shall be utilized for testing kits, reagents, medical/ diagnostic equipment, confinement, medicines, laboratory/ diagnostic procedures and personal protective equipment.
The PCSO manager added that as procedural requirement, upon receipt of the assistance, JBLMGH is required to submit hospital profile and its license from the Department of Health (DOH) and execute an undertaking and start planning on how to use the assistance based on the given limitations.
The PCSO financial assistance is in compliance with the memorandum issued by the Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea on March 28, 2020, with the subject Implementation of the Temporary Emergency Measures under the Republic Act (RA) No. 11469, otherwise known as the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, which orders government bodies to work together in protecting and supporting health workers and front liners.
The memorandum also orders the PCSO and other concerned government line agencies to provide supplies and equipment necessary for detecting the disease and caring for those infected; deliver essential necessities such as food and medicine to the most vulnerable; and, mobilize all state assets to sustain the operations of the government.
She also reiterated the appeal of PSCO General Manager Royina M. Garma to fellow Filipinos stating that PCSO will always be there, ready to provide health and medical related assistance.
“Let us also do our part as individuals by cooperating and following orders so that we can flatten the curve and put an end soon to this invisible enemy,” Soliman quoted Garma as saying.