FROM being eyed as a possible Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project, the Department of Health (DOH) revealed that it is now looking to improve the Philippine Orthopedic Center (POC) on its own.
Health Secretary Janette Garin said they are still exploring ways on how to improve the Quezon City-based specialty hospital despite the failed PPP project with Megawide World Citi Consortium Inc. (Megawide).
"We are just finding ways to improve the current Orthopedic Hospital. Whatever they need, we will try to help them," said Garin.
Currently, Garin said the DOH has allocated an initial P100 million for the improvement of the facilities and services of the POC.
Nevertheless, the health chief said the DOH is not totally abandoning the POC modernization plan and it is still open to any interested company that will agree to modernize the POC under the mandatory provision of the 70 percent allocation for government-sponsored patients.
For the moment, though, Garin admitted that they cannot find any qualified proposals from interested service providers.
"There are no takers. So we can probably say it is temporarily shelved," Garin told reporters.
She said negotiations with several interested companies have failed since the government refuses to concede to their demands of providing 70 percent allocation for government-sponsored patients.
Under the POC modernization plan, the 700-bed specialty hospital must be divided into 70 percent for sponsored patients with the remaining 30 percent for paying private patients.
"The government is not backtracking on the mandatory 70 percent indigent or PhilHealth only patients. Because of this, the impact is there are no new developments on any negotiations," said Garin.
She disclosed that there are interested bidders, who even sought for a different sharing method, by allocating 90 percent for paying patients with the remaining 10 percent for government-sponsored individuals.
"They said that is the only set-up, where they can earn from it. Of course we understand that they also want to earn profits from the project," said Garin. (HDT/Sunnex)