NOTE: THIS STORY WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE BOHOL CHRONICLE’S SUNDAY PRINT EDITION.
Rep. Erico Aristotle Aumentado of Bohol’s 2nd District supports the bill of Rep. Alexie Tutor, his counterpart in the 3rd District, to nationalize the Candijay District Hospital (CDH).
“I even called her to manifest my interest to co-author the bill,” Aumentado said, adding that he intends to also solicit her help in his own move to nationalize the provincial government-run Francisco Dagohoy Hospital in Inabanga.
Aumentado said upgrading CDH means more equipment, personnel and medicines that redound to better services as the bill includes the funding to operate the same in the General Appropriations Act.
The solon emphasized that he is not undermining the efforts and intent of the Provincial Government. But the province relies to a big extent on loans for its hospital modernization program.
He said returning CDH to the national government thru the Department of Health will ease the burden of the province.
“The provincial government can then focus on other projects, especially infrastructure, instead of allocating that big an amount in its yearly budget for amortization,” he said.
Or, he added, the amount intended for CDH can be shared by the remaining nine devolved hospitals – for their upgrading and purchase of equipment.
In a visit to CDH, Aumentado found that there were times when the patient’s watcher had to buy needles, syringes, other supplies and medicines from private drugstores because the hospital had already run out of stock.
Once a DOH hospital, CDH will be able to provide better services. This means non-CoViD-19 diseases can be treated there instead of the patients going all the way to the Don Emilio del Valle Memorial Hospital (DEDVMH) – a DOH hospital – in Ubay.
To note, the Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital (GCGMH) in Tagbilaran City has been designated as a “CoViD hospital” so that patients who manifest non-respiratory tract infections are referred to other hospitals.
When CDH becomes an expectedly better-equipped national hospital, patients will opt to be confined there. In the process, the solon said, this will decongest the DEDVMH.
All the lady legislator needs to do is to shepherd, follow up and push for the approval of the bill. As soon as it is approved in the Lower House, the Senate’s approval will not be far behind as it generally gives just a cursory review of local bills, Aumentado explained.
He said Tutor also has his support for when she will push for the upgrading of the number of beds of the hospitals in Carmen and Jagna – and even their nationalization. (June S. Blanco)