Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia announced, through the Capitol’s official news portal, Sugbo News, that the move will assess the current condition of hospitals and find solutions to the problems that they encounter during the evaluation process.
The evaluation was the result of Garcia’s meeting with the heads of four provincial hospitals and 12 district hospitals on Friday, Oct. 14, 2022, to discuss the matter.
During the meeting, Garcia told hospital personnel to always keep their facilities clean and orderly and to treat their patients fairly.
“Are you ready for the challenge?” Garcia said.
The three-month evaluation period will begin in November 2022 until January next year.
Garcia had earlier created a group headed by Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, Capitol’s consultant on health matters, and Provincial Board Member Stanley Caminero to monitor the hospitals and their services.
During their monitoring, the group found out that hospitals still lack medical equipment and facilities to improve their services.
In future evaluations, the hospitals’ performance will already be graded.
The hospital that gets the highest rating will be awarded by the Capitol.
Garcia said she has been challenging administrators of the Province’s hospitals to improve their services and facilities ever since her first term back in 2004. But she lamented that this was never implemented.
“I’ve been doing this since 2004. For nine years I struggled. After nine years, what little has been accomplished, it’s back to square one and (it) got worse. We’re singing the same old songs,” Garcia said in a mix of Cebuano and English.
The Provincial Government has allocated up to P8 billion in funds this year to improve and develop the services and facilities of the Province’s hospitals and for the salaries of healthcare workers. The budget this year is actually bigger compared to the P1.5 billion allocated to them in 2021.
Currently, only two provincial hospitals in the cities of Danao and Bogo in northern Cebu have so far submitted their applications for upgrade to the Department of Health.
The Capitol also signed an agreement with the Philippine Institute for Traditional and Alternative Health Care for the introduction of traditional and herbal medicines in hospitals under the Province. (ANV / TPT)