EDITORIAL — DOH should probe allegations vs. VSMMC

The Department of Health's proposal for Capitol to take over the primary and secondary services at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center has been put off. This, however, should not mean that the health department will drop issues that have been raised because of the proposal just like the way it dropped their very own suggestion for Capitol to take over some services of the hospital.

We believe that allegations that have been gathered by the Capitol against the hospital staff such as bad and sloppy service, discourtesy, financial interests in medicine and other equipment and questionable associations with favored pharmacies should be looked into and should not be treated lightly.

Health officials should be worried about these allegations not only because these concerns were gathered by a party that was invited to look into the viability of taking over some of the services of the hospital, but also because these are mainly concerns of patients.

It is a fact that most, if not all, of those who seek treatment and medical services at the VSMMC are those who cannot afford to go to private hospitals. These people go to VSMMC hoping that they get the best possible service that the hospital, which is run by the government, could give at a price that they can afford. It is very important therefore that these people are treated well because the VSMMC is among their limited options for medical services. Allegations that hospital staffs are the very people who maltreat these people are disturbing and should be stopped as soon as possible if proven to be true.

Improving the services of the hospitals it is running is among the Herculean tasks of the health department and we understand that these problems cannot be acted upon immediately. However, the Capitol has helped the department in unearthing these problems and in fact has gathered complaints from patients. It should not be too big a task for the department to assign some people to look into these allegations.