Surgeries can now be performed in the Jesus M. Paras Memorial District Hospital in Carcar City after it was upgraded to Level 1. Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III out a post-surgery bed. (CDN PHOTO/ CHRISTIAN MANINGO)
THE Provincial Health Office wants to fund upgrades for 16 district and provincial hospitals in next year’s budget.
“We also want to upgrade the rest of our hospitals to level one. For level one, not just to maintain, but to really upgrade as well,” Provincial Health Officer Dr. Cynthia Genosolango said.
She said she wants to upgrade four provincial hospitals to level two by 2017 or even by the last half of next year.
Province-owned hospitals proposed a P349-million budget for next year compared to P297 million this year.
The bulk of this will be used for personnel salaries, operations, maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE), and drugs and medicines.
Reclassified
Last Wednesday, hospital chiefs presented their budget proposals in a review hearing.
The four facilities the province seeks to upgrade by 2017 are hospitals in Carcar City, Danao City, Bogo City, and Balamban, whose status was just upgraded this year.
In terms of equipment, Genosolango said most of the Province’s district hospitals are ready for “upgrading.”
About 10 primary health care district hospitals were upgraded to level one before 2015 but seven of these were reclassified to its original category earlier this year due to changes in standards set by the Department of Health (DOH).
While these hospitals were once given certificates recognizing their level-one status, they are not fully-functioning level-one facilities.
“We have to consider the availability of our medical specialists because it is one of the major criteria—to provide specialized health care services. That’s why you are categorized as level one or two,” Genosolango said.
The provincial government is hiring medical specialists, particularly surgeons and obstetrician-gynecologists, to address this situation.
Dr. Genosolango said they try to look for incentives to keep these medical specialists since a month’s salary in government is “only equivalent to what these practitioners earn in their offices in 10 minutes.”
Aside from offering incentives, the provincial government is asking these medical specialists to offer their services to the poor. “A number of them are responding along that line,” Genosolango said.
Free transportation
Genosolango said the increase in budget proposals for province-owned hospitals is in keeping with the rising demand for transportation and medicines to the indigents.
The Davide administration had been criticized by the One Cebu opposition for allowing the indigents to pay ambulances for their transportation and their medicines.
Dr. Genosolango said she ordered all chiefs of hospital to make sure that they don’t run out of medicines. She also said hospital-owned ambulances provide free transportation to patients.
She said only those owned by the local government units are subject to certain fees, depending on the LGU’s prerogative.
The Provincial Health Office asked for a P473 million budget next year, the bulk of which will go to personal services.