Dr. Rene Catan
The four district hospitals will become level II hospitals in three years.
This is one of the three-year goals that Dr. Rene Catan, acting Cebu Provincial Health Office head, announced in a press briefing yesterday.
Catan, a former orthopedic surgeon in Manila, was appointed by Gov. Hilario Davide III to head the PHO.
Catan said that the PHO was planning to make the district hospitals of Danao City and Bogo City in northern Cebu, Carcar City in southern Cebu and Balamban in western Cebu, into Level II hospitals.
He said the PHO was also looking into another hospital in the southwest.
“From ground zero, ato na syang butangan og equipment ug building (We will put equipment and put up a building). Same hospital, same name. It’s just that a whole lot better,” said Catan about the planned upgrade of the hospitals.
He said Level II hospitals would be more advanced with different departments such as for OB-Gyne, anthesiologists and internal medicine doctors.
He also said that these hospitals would also have better facilities such as CT Scans and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).
He said because of the lack of facilities in these hospitals, patients would opt to go to Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC), and had resulted to congestion there.
If the four hospitals become medical centers, Catan said this would decongest Sotto and at the same time, encourage more medical doctors and nurses to work in Cebu instead of going abroad.
Catan also outlined his program for the elderly which would include treatments for arthritis, sight and hearing.
He also said that the PHO would also introduce peritoneal dialysis for free to renal patients in public hospitals, which would cost lesser than the usual hemodialysis and would give more options to renal patients.
He said that he already talked with the Philippine Nephrological Society and they agreed to make Cebu the pilot area for the peritoneal dialysis.
This type of dialysis uses the patient’s peritoneum in the abdomen as a membrane where fluids and dissolved substances are exchanged from the blood.
Catan also said they would need to revise the dengue program because it had been a reactive program.
He said instead of waiting for the dengue to manifest, they would do the prevention.
He said they already assigned misting teams to address the rising number of cases. / USJ-R Intern Dafne Wenceslao
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