Two more groups to help Cebu City build hospital

CEBU, Philippines - Seeing the urgency to build a new city-run hospital, two associations have expressed their intent to help in the construction of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC).

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, in a press conference yesterday, said the the Philippine Pediatric Society, Inc. (PPS), through-Central Visayas Chapter president Jacqueline Espina, vowed to shoulder the construction expenses of the new facility's pediatric ward.

There are 10 PPS chapters in the country, including that in Central Visayas. 

Rama also said philanthropist Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung's Operation Smile, which sponsors free surgeries for children who have cleft palates and other facial deformities, pledged to give P100 million to cover the cost of one floor of the new hospital building.

The new CCMC building would be built on the same spot where it is standing now at the corner of N. Bacalso Ave. and Panganiban Sts.

"It will be a people's hospital, so hopefully ma-materialize ni tanan (all of these would happen)," the mayor said.

Early last month, Architect Miko Espina, CCMC ad hoc committee member, said during a site development plan presentation before the City Council, that the Cebu City Government would need over P1 billion to complete the new city hospital and integrated command center buildings.

In particular, the new five-storey CCMC building would be built on a 4,000-square-meter lot where the old structure stands.

According to the plan, the new building's ground floor would be for revenue generating offices, the emergency room, the out-patient department, lavatories, dialysis and diagnosis rooms, and the dietary department.

The second floor would have the surgical Intensive Care Units (ICU), CT scan, doctor's clinic (dental, aesthetic, ENT), operating room, doctor's lounge, delivery and laboratory rooms, ICU rooms, budgeting and finance offices.

The third to fifth floors would be utilized as private rooms and wards. There would also be 34 private beds and at least 80 ward beds, 12-bed emergency units, and corresponding nurses stations.

A chapel would also be built on top of the dietary center.

Meanwhile, the CCMC ad hoc committee members are meeting today to discuss the demolition date of the old structure, which was condemned after suffering serious damaged following the 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck Cebu and Bohol last Oct. 15.

The Commission on Audit has already given its approval for the city to destroy the building so the new one could be built.

Also, the City Public Information Office last Friday has started sending requests to all public institutions to allow the placement of CCMC's "Piso Mo Hospital Ko" donation bottles.

Currently, the donation bottles are placed at the main entrance and exit of the City Hall building, city markets, other Cebu City Government offices, and of the Bureau of Fire Protection-7 building that currently serves as a temporary hospital.

The City Treasurer's Office has reported that about P10 million has been collected under the campaign.  (FREEMAN)