Ordinance establishing dialysis center lobbied

CEBU, Philippines – With the increasing number of patients with kidney diseases, an ordinance establishing a dialysis center in Cebu City is being pushed.

All ten Cebu City Councilors under Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) pushed for the allocation of P10 million for the initial implementation of the ordinance should this be passed before the council and obtain the final stamp of Mayor Michael Rama.

Councilors Margarita Osmeña, Alvin Dizon, Alvin Arcilla, Nestor Archival, Roberto Cabarrubias, Lea Japson, Nida Cabrera, Eugenio Gabuya, Sisinio Andales, and the newly-adopted BOPK member Mary Ann de los Santos authored the said ordinance that aims to provide the city’s constituents with the necessary health aid.

The authors referred the matter to the council’s Committee on Laws, Ordinances, Public Accountability and Good Government for its perusal and recommendations.

“In a newspaper report quoting Dr. Alvin Roxas, kidney surgeon at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, the number of people seeking kidney dialysis increases every year and there is no imminent sign that the number of cases are going down. Roxas said that an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 new kidney dialysis patients are documented every year nationwide,” the proposed measure reads.

The authors noted that in the case of VSMMC, at least 20 dialysis machines are running non-stop from Mondays to Sundays to cater the needs of the patients. Around 80 patients are accommodated at VSMMC in a day, making it 560 patients per week.

A dialysis costs P2,500 per session, and a patient needs to undertake two or three sessions a week.

This prompted the councilors to push for the establishment of a dialysis center in the city.

The proposed measure further stipulates the creation of an oversight committee that will supervise its implementation.

This will be composed of the mayor as the chairman and Cebu City Medical Center’s medical director as the vice chairman. The members would be the City Treasurer, City Accountant, City Budget Officer, Department of Social Welfare and Services chief, City Health Officer, and a nephrologist who will head the dialysis center.

Once the center is established, the city will hire a board certified nephrologist, physician, dialysis nurse, and other administrative personnel to man it.

The dialysis center should likewise register its patients to the Renal Disease Register support of the Department of Health’s Renal Disease Control Program. —/NSA (FREEMAN)