Prioritizing Cebu City hospital

Yesterday, a public consultation was held at the City Hall related to the plan to construct a hospital for Cebu City. No one can deny the urgent need to have a quality and affordable public city hospital soonest.

Focus group discussions (FGDs) we conducted early last year with the Movement for Livable City (MLC) with 106 participants from the business, urban poor, employees, student and youth sectors mentioned the need to have free, accessible quality health care with good health care facilities within a livable city.

The FGD participants noted that health needs were unmet in Cebu City making it unlivable. In particular, the FGD participants noted that "there were no doctors and medicines for those without money- kung way kwarta, way doktor, way tambal - dili makiangayon ang mga doktor sa pag-serbisyo sa mga pasyente nga pobre." The respondents added that Metro Cebu hospitals lack services and medicine (kulang sa gamit, kulang sa tambal). They also noted that health centers lack supplies.

Even top officials of Cebu Province and Cebu City themselves go elsewhere, Manila or abroad, to get better medical care, confirming their lack of confidence and/or their personal need for more effective medication.

Rich and poor alike will benefit from having a high quality, accessible, affordable Cebu City public hospital. It is high time that Cebu City has its own quality, affordable, accessible hospital soonest.

The Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center is too congested, and sadly, for many years in the past, too politicized. The proposed Cebu City Hospital can learn from the experiences of both public and private hospitals and proceed to offer effective and excellent hospital and medical care and management.

Budget should not be a problem in a city that had prioritized even bigger budgets for non-essential, even unnecessary projects. This hospital project can see the whole Cebu City Council in full agreement regardless of party affiliations. To repeat, this hospital is urgently needed for all in this city! This is one issue where conflicting parties should unite, for the sake of all, for the sake of Cebu City.

The hospital plan needs to include the various visions and goals that the city hospital will be constructed for.            

Since Cebu City is strategically located, the proposed hospital will inevitably draw clients from other parts of the country, especially those from other Visayan provinces and even those from Mindanao. Since medical and health tourism is also being actively promoted, attracting elderly and the retirees among our overseas Filipinos and from other countries, the proposed Cebu City Hospital can be constructed considering this added goal.

Another important goal and function that should be considered for the future city hospital is the sustainability of the supply of highly qualified medical practitioners. Perhaps, asking the UP-PGH team to be partners for a university or a training center/hospital can be considered as well?

Management is a very serious and necessary component of any hospital. Leaving this in the hands of politicians will be to the detriment of all. Hopefully, included in the plan is a very effective management scheme and selection process that, again, will be beneficial to all constituents and clients, regardless of party lines or class.

Funding support should also be ensured sustainably and not politically dependent.

More about this hospital plan in our next discussion. If you have suggestions or comments about the Cebu City hospital plan, do please find time to email us? Shall we all find time to contribute our share in discussing, conceptualizing, planning and implementing this beautiful, urgent plan to have an effective, quality, efficient, accessible, affordable public city hospital soon?

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Email: [email protected].