Brain operation for indigents

CEBU, Philippines - The Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) has assured that even indigent patients could avail of its high-tech navigational system for brain tumor and spine surgery.

The VSMMC has announced the acquisition of the said navigational system, BrainLAB Curve, which successfully operated the first brain tumor and spine surgery last Friday.

The VSMMC is the only government hospital in the country to have the equipment, the first in the Visayas and Mindanao regions and the second in Asia.

Dr. Roque Paradela, the chief of the professional medical department of VSMMC, reported that it only took an hour instead of the ordinary three hours to conduct the operation.

Dr. Emmanuel Gines, chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine of VSMMC, also said that with the new equipment, their people can now do orthopedics surgery with full safety.

“By this equipment we can assure that we can do the operation easily, 100 percent accurate and safe,” said Gines, who is also the consultant on Spine Section of the Department of Orthopedics of VSMMC.

Gines said that some private hospitals in Metro Cebu already have the equipment but only VSMMC has the latest one.

He said that it is too expensive to avail of the said operation in private hospital but the one at VSMMC can be used at lower cost.

VSMMC chief, Dr. Gerardo Aquino, said that it is not because government hospitals have limited resources that they cannot acquire such facility for the safety of the patients.

Aquino said that the equipment can be acquired either through partnership, installment and revenue sharing scheme which is self liquidating which is means as they earn, they pay the company.

“We were able to procure it in a manner that is self liquidating,” he said.

He also stressed that patients are charged through socialized payment at a lower rate while those who can pay shall subsidize those who cannot pay.

“Bisan pobre ka you can still avail of this kind of equipment that somebody is subsidizing you,” Aquino added.

The intraoperative image guidance brings brain tumor and spine surgery to a whole new level to plan the safest and most effective path to a tumor or other malformation.

BrainLAB Curve is a significant upgrade that provides major improvement in accuracy that translates into shorter operation, shorter hospital stays and lower treatment costs, which will improve outcomes and patient.  — (FREEMAN)