Guba Community Hospital now open

CEBU, Philippines — Nearly six years after it began construction, the Guba Community Hospital will now be operational following its opening ceremony yesterday.

Present during the opening were acting Cebu City Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia, acting Vice Mayor Donaldo Hontiveros, Councilors Jocelyn Pesquera, Francis Esparis, Pastor “Jun” Alcover, Joel Garganera, Noel Wenceslao, and Health and barangay officials.

The Guba Community Hospital is an extension of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC).

Pesquera, chairwoman of the Committee on Health in the City Council, also announced during the ceremony that the Guba Community Hospital will be renamed as the North District Hospital through a city ordinance.

According to her, it is only fitting that the hospital will be named such as it caters to the constituents in the North District.

In his speech, Garcia emphasized that in the two months since he assumed office as acting mayor, it had been his mandate to strengthen the health programs of the city.

In a press conference, he also said that it is the target of the city government to install additional equipment in the hospital. The hospital still lacks X-ray, ultrasound, and other machines.

The construction and equipment of the facility is being fully funded by the Department of Health-7 leaving no cost to the city government. Its primary objective is to make it a level 1 hospital.

Currently, the facility only has 10 beds. Despite opening its primary building, the construction of its second floor is still ongoing. It is estimated to cost ?20 million.

"I think it's ongoing now, but wa pa sad sila mo-ingon og kanus-a ni mahuman ang construction timeframe," said Garcia.

Guba Community Hospital medical director Dr. Grace Valdez told the media that they shared the operational responsibilities with CCMC with 15 personnel currently deployed in the facility. Of these 15 six are doctors.

In line with this, they are also opening more positions for doctors and nurses to beef up the number of personnel manning the hospital this year. She added, this is also because they are eyeing to have 24-hour operations.  The second floor is also set to open within the year.

“The thing we can assure the residents of the neighboring residents not only in Guba is that Guba Community Hospital adopts the concept of where service is sacred. So ang atong serbisyo sagrado kaayo, we honor our patients, we have our focus on customer care, we have our focus on advancing medical technology incorporating it to the holistic approach of the patients and better services for the entire health area," Valdez assured.

The Guba Community Hospital faced hiccups even before its actual opening and completion. Previously, Garcia sought answers on its rehabilitation after the completion was stalled since construction started six years ago. It was last June 3 when Garcia announced that the Guba Community Hospital already needed rehabilitation. This was his assessment following his inspection of the facility.

"In fact I would already say nga 90 to 95% of it is already complete and sa perspective sa ilang drawing perti g’yung nindota however wa pa magamit because of some issues that I really have to look into," he previously said.

He added that he was dismayed when he learned that the hospital is six years in the making and still far from completion despite having an established perspective that has been envisioned.

A day later, the Office of the Building Office confirmed that the hospital didn't have a building permit to resume construction, hence was issued with notice of illegal construction and work stoppage order long before. (CEBU NEWS)