DOH welcomes Capitol's health service initiatives

Department of Health Assistant Secretary David Lozada Jr. expressed enthusiasm over the provincial government's initiative to develop a "holistic, comprehensive approach" in the provision of health services.

Impressed by the Capitol's efforts to improve the services offered in its 18 district hospitals in the province, Lozada told Governor Gwen Garcia that he saw the opportunity to come up with a comprehensive program in which each facility complements the other.

In fact, Lozada joined Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña in trying to convince Garcia to accept the mayor's offer for the Capitol to take over the operations of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC).

"I must say though that we sent our audit team already to the CCMC (this week) and we were warmly welcomed. We were very well received," Garcia said.

She was, however, mum when asked if the same warm reception was extended to the Capitol team that inspected the Vicente Sotto Medical Center (VSMMC) over plans to take over the hospital's primary and secondary services. But some members of the team said the VSMMC employees were very cold to them.

The audit, which is scheduled for September 28, will be conducted by the Capitol accountants, who will be assisted by their counterparts at the DOH central office in Manila. They will look into which involves the primary and secondary services and which involves the tertiary services.

During a meeting last Wednesday afternoon, the governor stressed to both DOH and VSMMC officials the need to conduct an audit before they proceed on the budgetary appropriations as regards to the takeover plans.

Garcia met with DOH and VSMMC officials in relation to the proposal of DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III that it is about time the province will handle the primary and secondary services of the VSMMC. The national government will be taking care of the tertiary services as provided for in the law.

Although there were "misapprehensions" on the audit from VSMMC chief Dr. Filomena delos Santos, the governor said these were perhaps due to the absence of a clear understanding over the reason to conduct such.

"I said you have to understand our position. In spite of what some very voluble and loud persons have been trying to put across in terms of complaints and other objections on print and elsewhere, I believe that a large majority of the Cebuanos especially those that are in the province welcome the proposal of the secretary that the Province of Cebu would take over the primary and secondary services," she said.

"Now because of that, I believe that the expectations are high and we would not want to fail by coming in there unprepared and not having an idea of what it is that we are getting into in terms of budgetary allocation, in terms of revenues, in terms of manpower, equipment and infrastructure requirements," she added.

She pointed out that the Capitol has a stand to request that all infrastructure, medical equipment and other facilities currently used for the primary and secondary services be turned over to the province "so as not to disrupt operations, so as not to disadvantaged patients that require primary and secondary services."

The governor also told Lozada of the Capitol's plan to work together with the Cebu Women's Club insofar as the operations of the Cebu Puericulture and Maternity Hospital are concerned.

"We discovered that they have been running the Puericulture out of their own spirit of volunteerism and perhaps out of their own funds and with the earnings that they are realizing from that property," Garcia said.

The province had in the past donated to the Cebu Women's Club a 4,000 square meter property near VSMMC, where the puericulture and a commercial building are now located.

The provincial government was considering recovering the property beside puericulture, which the latter has leased to commercial establishments.

But the governor has instead decided to utilize the property in partnership with the hospital for an "even higher revenue-generating capacity." - Cristina C. Birondo/LPM