A family’s complaint about rats that ate the nose of a gunshot victim’s remains inside a makeshift morgue of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) shows the urgency in rebuilding a new hospital for the city.
“Yes, that incident is (a sign) to fast track the construction of the city hospital. The facilities are temporary and can never been considered as ideal,” said Regional Director Jaime Bernadas of the Department of Health (DOH).
The October 15 2013 earthquake that hit Bohol and Cebu severely damaged the old CCMC structure and was declared unfit for occupancy.
The regional DOH-7 requested a P500 million budget from their central office to rebuild the hospital. But the agency has yet to receive funding.
Bernadas said they’re helping the CCMC management in procuring equipment to make the hospital compliant with DOH health care standards.
He said the CCMC management informed them that they are relocating some portions of the hospital to the adjacent building formerly occupied by the Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom).
The construction of the new CCMC has been hounded by delays when the winning bidder was disqualified by the Bids and Awards Committee of the Cebu city government last year. Mayor Micheal
Rama eventually declared failure of bidding. The new bidding for the CCMC has yet to be scheduled as Rama had just reorganized the BAC last week.
Dr. Sophia Mancao, DOH-7’s head of a fact-finding committee on the incident, said there is no official complaint from the family of Harold Siton, who died of a gunshot wound last Sunday night.
They were more disheartened when they found out that the rats nibbled parts of their dead relative’s face.
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