THE office of Mandaue City Lone District Rep. Emmarie “Lolypop” Ouano-Dizon has downloaded about P23.5 million to be used as medical assistance for indigent residents of the city brought to private and public hospitals in Cebu.
Dizon poured the said amount to the Medical Assistance for Indigents Program (Maip) of the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH 7), through a memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed at the DOH 7 compound in Cebu City on Friday, Nov. 11, 2022.
DOH 7 Director Jaime Bernadas represented the department during the MOA signing along with the directors of partner hospitals.
Cebu hospitals included in the Maip are Chong Hua Hospital (P5.5 million), Cebu Doctors’ University Hospital (P4 million), Mandaue District Hospital (P3 million),
University of Cebu Medical Center (P3.5 million), Perpetual Succour Hospital (P2 million), Mendero Medical Center (P1.5 million), Eversley Childs Sanitarium and General Hospital (P2 million) and Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (P2 million).
Under the Maip, the said hospitals are required to extend life-saving medicines and services, as well as medical products, to indigent patients who now have the option to go to private hospitals provided that they have the required documents needed for admission.
Bernadas told SunStar Cebu that the DOH will reimburse the total charges to the partner hospitals.
“We all know how difficult it is when someone in the family is sick. Everybody is affected even the people’s livelihood. Under this program, we can extend help to patients and even private hospitals are covered because the availability of (rooms in) hospitals cannot be ascertained,” said Dizon in Cebuano.
Dizon added that while the funds may not be enough to shoulder every single centavo in the medical cost of every indigent patient in all hospitals, the Maip is seen to lighten the load of the patients and their families who need all the help they can get during a time of sickness.