Council summons CCMC execs

CEBU, Philippines - The officials of Cebu City Medical Center are summoned to appear before the City Council on February 10 to answer complaints from medical and non-medical employees of the hospital.

The City Council received a letter complaint from anonymous senders who claimed to be employees of the city hospital. The complainants alleged that they have been receiving “unjust” benefits.

 “Unfortunately, we do not want to provide names because the hospital administration has already become politically inclined to the present administration. They will do moves to transfer some of us or sadly even recommend not to renew our services,” read the letter received by the City Council last January 22.

“The issues here are the funds from PhilHealth claims and annual budget that must be spend with transparency and fairly. It will be discouraging that they are making policy using the hospital funds only to benefit the few, without equality to those rank-and-file who are also performing their work to provide better service,” it added.

The letter was among the agenda in the City Council’s regular session last January 27.

“We are the employees at Cebu City Medical Center consists of medical and non-medical but are performing vital functions at the hospital. We wish to seek assistance from the City Council on the benefits received by the employees at the CCMC,” the letter reads.

The employees claimed that the sharing of PhilHealth funds has been “unfairly distributed” to the employees.

They said the doctors are receiving P25,000 each, some division chiefs receive P25,000, TQM personnel at P5,000 each, senior nurse at P8,000 each, while the rank-and-file employees only get P2,000 each.

“What is the basis of the sharing and how do they do it? The law on PhilHealth did not provide the sharing, that is why only few are making the policy beneficial to them. This will cause to abuse of authority and discretion among those in position,” the letter reads.

The employees alleged that the CCMC administration is also giving “unfair” amount of the hazard and subsistence allowance for the employees.

“The 2016 approved annual budget provided a sufficient appropriation for the hazard and subsistence allowance for all employees of CCMC. However, we were informed that again they made a policy as to how much employee can receive, meaning not all employees can receive the same amount which is unfair,” the letter added.

The employees are asking the members of the City Council to pass an ordinance or a resolution that will provide the grant of the allowance to ensure that it is granted fairly.

They are hoping that the City Council would help them on the issue.

City Councilor Alvin Dizon said the complainants should appear in the executive session.

“To be fair, kaning mga employees dapat pud mobarog sa ilang reklamo. Kun legitimate ilang reklamo, mo-attend pud unta sila para ma-apprise pud ang City Council sa ilang concerns,” he said.

City Councilor Margarita Osmeña also agreed saying it would be “fair and balance” on the part of the hospital administration.

“I also understand the complainants. If these allegations are not true, executives of the hospital can answer this in the executive session,” Osmeña said.

Sought for comment, CCMC head lawyer Rey Cris Panugaling denounced the claims of unnamed employees. Panugaling said the PhilHealth sharing policy of the hospital was supported by a resolution.

Panugaling said the approved sharing was; 50 percent for the medical personnel and the remaining 50 percent will be shared among the rank-and-file, nursing seniors and supervisors, quality team, and management.

“I believed that these employees were not listening, did not get right information, and not with the one direction of the hospital,” Panugaling said.— (FREEMAN)