DOH assures funding for hospital relocation

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines — The planned relocation of the Governor Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital (GCGMH) from this city to Cortes town, about 12 kilometers away, got a boost with the assurance of funds for its construction of a new facility at the new site.

Governor Edgar Chatto announced over the weekend that the Department of Health, through Secretary Enrique Ona, has assured the provincial government of funding for the hospital's new site and building.

The DOH will ensure that money for the construction of the hospital will be included in the budget every year until it is completed, said Chatto during the "Kita ug Ang Gobernador" weekly press conference.

The estimated cost of the project is P2.99 billion, said hospital chief Dr. Nenita Po in a recent gathering of doctors and health workers. There is a need to transfer the hospital because it is now becoming crowded with no more room enough for expansion to attend to the rising number of patients every day.

The provincial government has committed to donate five hectares of its property in Cortes town for the accommodation of the hospital's building facility and other facilities.

GCGMH, formerly the Bohol Provincial Hospital, is a 225-bed capacity but is serving like a 250-bed facility, under the level 2 general license category, said Po. The bed capacity is apportioned to: 200 beds authorized for PhilHealth; 50 actual and 175 beds for charity patients, she said.

It has major departments-surgical, medical, OB-Gyne and Pediatrics-and accredited departments (general surgery, internal medicine, OB-Gyne, General Pediatrics and Pathology) with major services such as medical, nursing, administrative and finance. Other departments are outpatient, radiology, laboratory (clinical, anatomic), anesthesia and dental, said Po.

Po said the hospital is now manned by a total of 748 personnel, 335 of them regular employees, 168 are of RN Heals, 127 are contractuals, 88 are job orders, 21 are security guards, four each for province-paid and medical pool, and one casual.

Its existing programs are center for wellness, asthma clinic, diabetes program, family planning, dental health, mental health, drug and substance abuse clinic, cancer prevention, HIV/AIDS prevention, rabies control program and reproductive health program.

The hospital started with only two-room capacity as a non-profit government medical facility. It was constructed under Republic Act 3116 as amended by RA 3168 when it opened on October 19, 1929 with an 8-bed capacity.

Then congressman Bartolome Cabangbang sponsored a bill in Congress renaming it to GCGMH on April 6, 1984 by virtue of Batas Pambansa Blg. 640. The said law was amended by RA 7266 increasing its bed capacity to 225. — (FREEMAN)