P250,000 endowment fund to benefit more indigents

CEBU, Philippines - Indigent families can now avail of additional free drugs and medicines, aside from some other medical services offered at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development had already transferred an endowment fund worth P250,000 to the hospital after DSWD Secretary Esperanza Cabral and VSMMC director Gerardo Aquino signed a memorandum of agreement to this effect.

DSWD public information officer Jaybee Binghay-Carillo explained that the increasing number of clients seeking medical assistance recorded at the DSWD’s Crisis Intervention Unit shows that most number of families experienced difficulty meeting the expenses needed for medical treatment of a family member.

It prompted the DSWD to initiate a tie-up project with government tertiary hospitals nationwide, including VSMMC, to attend to the needs of indigent families who will be confined or are seeking physical check-up at said hospital.

Binghay-Carillo said that the indigent families can avail of benefits for medical procedures and medicines from the DSWD, aside from those provided by the hospital.

The MOA signed between Cabral and the VSMMC director shall provide free medical services for out-patient consultation or confinement, laboratory test, electrocardiogram, all kinds of X-ray as well as CT scan.

Ultrasound, including 2D echo-cardiogram, electro-encephalogram, medicines and other medical and laboratory procedures available at the hospital can also be availed by the indigent patients as recommended by the attending physician.

She explained that financial assistance for medical expenses that are not provided by the government hospital to indigent patients, which shall not exceed P5,000, will be covered by the said fund.

The MOA provides that to avail of the program, the applicant must present an updated medical abstract of the patients signed by the attending physicians, diagnosis and plan management, and assessment of the local social welfare officer.

The applicant patient or his representative is also required to present barangay certification that will identify them, aside from any of the identification cards from the Social Security System, Government Service Insurance System, Philippine Postal Corporation, Comelec, passport, driver’s license and latest company ID. — Rene U. Borromeo/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)