Tomas: No to increase in fees at city hospital

CEBU- Increasing the hospital fees is not the solution to the problems of the Cebu City Medical Center.

This was the statement of Mayor Tomas, who has criticized the hospital management for its poor performance.

“The role of government is to help the poor guy the services that he cannot get elsewhere. People go to CCMC because they do not have money and you will increase hospital fees?

“The more the patient cannot afford to pay. What if the patient has no money, you let him die,” Osmeña said.

However, the mayor pointed out that no matter how “pissed” he is already on how the hospital is being managed, he is not yet thinking of shutting down the facility while the sale is still underway.

The mayor said that the city government has slowly removed some services from the hospital to allow it to cater to what it is mainly tasked to do.

Among these is the maternity service, which is now being served by various birthing facilities around the city.

Earlier, CCMC administrator Myrna Go has proposed to have a minimal increase in some hospital fees in order for them to improve their services.

Such proposal was even supported by Osmeña’s consultant for CCMC, Dr. Rodolfo Roman Bigornia.

For this year, the city government allocated P139 million for the hospital, but 60 percent of that or P83 million is allocated for the salaries and benefits of personnel.

“Sigi lang sila ug reklamo but what is their initiative? At CCMC, it is just like your beating a dead horse. They want to increase hospital fees, but what is their priority?

“Their auditorium, on how to put air conditioner is their priority. They have air conditioned audio visual room. You bet your life, that is their priority,” the irked mayor said.

 Osmeña added that the city government has to have its own team to appraise the real value of the hospital and will not just rely on the appraisal team of interested buyers.

So far, Osmeña said aside from the University of San Carlos, which showed interest in buying the property Chong Hua Hospital also expressed intention to do so.

“We have to have our own appraisal team, so that we will know the value of the hospital and compare CCMC to other hospitals. You cannot judge CCMC without comparing to other hospitals. But if the offer to buy the hospital is very low, ayaw na lang,” Osmeña said. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon /NLQ (THE FREEMAN)