Congress signs upgrade of district hospital in Bogo

CEBU, Philippines - House Bill 2879 which seeks for the upgrade and modernization from a basic hospital into a tertiary medical facility of the Severo Verallo Memorial District Hospital in Bogo is already approved in Congress.

The approval of the said Act also entails increase in the hospital’s bed capacity from 50 to 100 including the upgrade in appropriation funds.

In an interview with Cebu fourth district Rep. Benhur Salimbangon, it was learned that the bill is now due for plenary hearing and approval in the Senate.

Salimbangon said that the allocation from the government will allow the hospital to hire more doctors to be able to attend to more patients and increase medical supplies to cater to the increasing number of patients. 

He added that the hospital badly needs to undergo expansion as soon as possible because the number of its personnel, beds and rooms are not anymore enough to attend to its admission rate that has already increased to 140 percent.

“Sometimes, patients just stay at the hallway [corridor] because of the lack of space to hold them,” Salimbangon said. 

The hospital serves the half-a-million population of Bogo as well as those from the fifth district, Salimbangon added.

Salimbangon, along with the co-authors of the bill, expects that before the end of this year, President Arroyo would enact HB 2879 into law so it could be included in the Annual General Appropriations Act.

To recall, the DOH Center for Health Development has allocated P3 million for the expansion of the Verallo Hospital in a Memorandum of Agreement signed just recently by the DOH and the provincial government. Salimbangon said that the P3-million funds shall be used, in the meantime, for additional medical supplies in the hospital while HB 2879 is still pending in the Senate.

Salimbangon said he has originally asked for P20 million so a major upgrade can be done immediately. — Jessica Ann R. Pareja/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)