Security problems also plague CCMC

CEBU, Philippines - Aside from having to deal with the usual woes that besiege a government hospital, patients at the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) also need to worry about security.

Due to the lack of security personnel, it is very easy for people to get in and out of the hospital.

This has been tagged as the reason why recently a patient of the male surgical ward lost his wallet.

CCMC director Eduardo Sedoripa also said that this is also the reason why many patients can easily slip out of the hospital without paying their bills.

According to Sedoripa the hospital only has 10 private security guards working on three eight-hour shifts.

Dr. Sedoripa said he needs more security guards to protect the lives of the patients, including the properties of the medical facility.

Pending the approval of his request, Sedoripa just asked the patients and their relatives to be on alert against the criminals.

He is hoping that the City Hall’s Local Finance Committee will grant his request for additional budget next year because the existing P211 million allocated to the CCMC is not enough.

Based on the latest census of the National Statistics Office (NSO), Cebu City already has close to 800,000 residents and about half of that are indigents.

Mayor Michael Rama said he is not against the P300 million to P350 million budget requested by Sedoripa, although it should be discussed first thoroughly.

Meanwhile, Sedoripa announced that he is requesting City Hall to purchase an ambulance because it would be very awkward for this highly-urbanized city to have none for its tertiary hospital.

Aside from the request for an ambulance, Sedoripa had also asked City Hall to provide the CCMC with a new operating room and other special medical equipment.

One of Sedoripa’s requests is to install centralized piped oxygen in every ward of the hospital so that there is no need to carry the oxygen tanks to different wards in case there are patients that need them. –/NLQ (THE FREEMAN)