CCMC to continue operating despite status downgrade
THE Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) will continue to operate as a government hospital despite the downgrading of its status from a level 2 to a level 1 facility by the Department of Health (DOH), said Acting Mayor Edgardo Labella.
He explained that the downgrading is “logical” because construction of the new facility if still on going.
“We can always apply for upgrade to level 2 as soon as construction is complete,” he said.
The CCMC was torn down to give way for the construction of a new hospital after it was declared unsafe for occupancy following the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit the city on October 15, last year.
According to DOH standards, a level two hospital, the old status given to CCMC, has well operated sections like the pedia, internal medicine, surgery and obstetrics departments.
CCMC is now given the status of a level 1 hospital because it only operates a laboratory, operating room, x-ray and delivery rooms.
“I don’t think there is anything to worry. It is only logical that we go back to level one,” Labella.
DOH officials discovered CCMC’s non-compliance with requirements set for a level 2 facility when the city applied for a permit to reconstruct the old hospital building. Inspectors were sent to the city to validate the city’s permit application.
Labella said that since CCMC is not fully operational, the city government will continue to refer patients to private hospitals like Chong Hua, Sacred Heart and Miller Hospital under its City Hospitalization Assistance and Medicines Program (CHAMP).
He was also scheduled to meet with Don Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) director Gerardo Aquino late yesterday afternoon to discuss the city’s request for the national government-run hospital to resume accepting Cebu City residents.
Sotto, Labella said, has ceased to receive patients referred by the city government in 2010 because of unpaid hospital dues amounting to about P 3 million.
“The city has money but we cannot yet pay them because of lack in documentation requirement,” he added.
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