Active LGU role in outsourcing district hospital doctors sought

CEBU, Philippines - Two members of the Provincial Board see the urgent need to tap local government units in the plan to shift to outsourcing as a way of providing more resident physicians, equipment and facilities to Capitol-operated district hospitals.

PB members Juan Bolo and Julian Daan called on the LGUs to take active roles in addressing the problem on the reported lack of doctors, facilities and equipment by instituting improvements in district hospitals in order to better serve constituents.

Both Bolo and Daan quoted Department of Health-7 regional director Susana Madarieta who said that some district hospitals in the region, especially those situated in far-flung towns, lack facilities, manpower and capability when it comes to serving patients.

Madarieta said that given the capabilities of district hospitals, bigger government hospitals such as the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center often end up attending to patients who have been referred by district hospitals.

Health officials led by Madarieta identified problems that some centers for health development encounter in their areas. These problems include having only one doctor available to attend to all patients, lack in hospital facilities, and lack of capability of some hospital staff.

Outsourcing of personnel to man district hospitals is among the solutions suggested by Health officials.

LGUs are then urged to assist in the outsourcing of doctors and in tapping non-government organizations to help provide district hospitals with equipment.

Bolo said that time most matters when the need to save the life of a patient, or to any kind of health distress, is being called for. It is very important for district hospitals to cater these needs as travel from the area of the patient to the faraway tertiary hospitals varies proportionately to the patient’s chances of survival. — Jose P. Sollano/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)