Margot airs gripes against city hospital

This was the question raised by Cebu City First Lady Margot Osmeña, who spoke up yesterday about her grievances against the city-owned hospital.

Mrs. Osmeña said that she has her own gripes against the hospital.

She narrated that a few years ago, their former driver suffered an injury and was brought to CCMC for treatment, but since the hospital had no facility for CT scan, the patient had to be transferred to Chong Hua Hospital.

What made it more unfortunate was that there was no ambulance that could take the patient to the private hospital until three hours after and he died while being transferred.

She added that one of her friends called her up that her helper suffered some injury and was brought to CCMC, but apparently the helper was not treated well prompting her friend to call the first lady and after which the patient was reportedly scolded by the hospital staff for calling the attention of Mrs. Osmeña.

She added that another friend of her was so upset upon the learning that the medical equipment they donated for the pediatric ward of CCMC remained unused at the storeroom, three years after they were turned over to the hospital.

“I don’t know why. It is just sad. It just happened so often. There are too many complaints already. I know there are good doctors and nurses at CCMC, but we never heard of them,” Mrs. Osmeña said.

She also pities people going to CCMC for medical treatment, who don’t get treated properly by the hospital staff.

“The people go there because they have no choice. Those who go there have no money and you don’t have to slap it back to their faces that they do not have money,” the first lady said.

Mrs. Osmeña however refused to comment whether she is in favor of selling the hospital, but said it’s a question of how the budget for the hospital coming from the city government is spent.

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña in the same press conference said that CCMC has no future as can be gleaned from the dismal performance in the last few years.

“At CCMC, we are not getting our money’s worth,” the mayor said adding that the city is allocating P160 per year as its annual budget.

The mayor is now entertaining the idea of selling the facility to a private institution and create a health program that is much better what CCMC can provide.–Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/NLQ