ABOUT P15 million was spent for the expansion of the Ricardo Maningo Memorial Hospital, the lone medical facility in Camotes Island, a Capitol official said yesterday.
Provincial Information Officer Ethel Natera said the provincial government allocated the amount to increase the hospital’s bed capacity from 25 to 50 beds.
Two private rooms and two semi-private rooms are set up behind the original hospital.
Another building which serves as the hospital morgue had already been operational since late last year.
The building expansion was completed some time in December 2015, Natera said.
She said fewer people will have to be referred to hospitals in mainland Cebu and medical staff can perform minor surgeries aside from pediatrics and internal medicine.
Natera said the hospital now has an obstetrician, but service is still limited to normal deliveries.
More complicated procedures such as caesarean operations and other forms of delivery still need to be referred to higher-level hospitals in the mainland.
The nearest facility is the Cebu Provincial Hospital in Danao City, northern Cebu, which can be reached by ferry from the Consuelo port.
Sometimes, doctors from the hospital in Danao City visit the district hospitals in Camotes and provincial hospitals in Balamban town and Carcar City.
At present, the hospital in Camotes still needs a heart defibrillator, more skilled nurses, and laboratory equipment to measure sodium and potassium levels.
The Capitol set aside P2.11 million for a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in the hospital.
Natera said she hopes the STP will become operational within the first half of 2016.
“It is not yet operational as this type of treatment system needs pumps in transferring water,” she said.
Natera said the Provincial Planning and Development Office said in its report that the Camotes hospital needs a three-phase power supply system to be fully functional.
Natera said the province issued a purchase order the Camotes Electric Co. to upgrade the primary line.