Gov. Edgar Chatto is serious to fully upgrade and capacitate the hospitals run by the province as prescribed in his gaining modernization program and the health agenda of his final capitol term until 2019.
The continuing hospital modernization program of his administration has gone aggressive since the devastating earthquake that hit Bohol three years ago this October.
In the next three years, Chatto’s goal is to complete the infrastructure, equipment and manpower needs of the district hospitals managed by the provincial government.
The governor said that in truly enabling the public hospitals, the government more than intends to provide the best possible service to the people.
Chatto himself led the second term-ending assessment workshop for the district hospital in Talibon after the evaluation for the district hospital in Jagna last week.
The biggest of the 10 devolved hospitals managed by the province, the facility in Talibon in the Second District is also known as the Garcia Memorial Provincial Hospital in memory of the late Boholano Pres. Carlos P. Garcia.
Likewise called the Cong. Teodoro Galagar Memorial Hospital, the one in Jagna in the Third District just recently received its ISO accreditation.
Its new three-storey building equipped with an elevator is ready for the approved increase in hospital occupancy from original bed capacity of 25 and then 50 to 75 now.
The eight other province-owned hospitals covered by the on-going upgrading are strategically situated in Maribojoc, Loon, Clarin, Inabanga, Pres. Garcia which is an island-town, Candijay, Carmen and Catigbian.
An entirely new Loon district hospital is to rise on a safer relocation site because the existing facility was destroyed during the mighty earthquake.
Being the “Provincial Hospital of Bohol†precisely because it is the biggest among the province-managed, the one in Talibon must take the lead in the modernization, the governor challenged.
Boholanos has been used to mistakenly referring the “provincial hospital†to the Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital (GCGMH) in Tagbilaran City.
The GCGMH is actually a regional hospital supervised by the Department of Health, not under the provincial government, and the biggest government hospital in Bohol.
Rep. Rene Relampagos has legislated in Congress the upgrading of the GCGMH to, among other necessary major improvements, double its present capacity to over 500 beds.
The First District solon’s move has complemented well with the plan of the DOH and the province to build a modern, bigger Gallares hospital.
The project is considered a part of the modernization of the government hospitals in Bohol under the Chatto administration.
The governor challenged all the chiefs and staff of the province-run hospitals, with the Provincial Health Office supervising, to “give extra mile of quality service†and meet the people’s health care expectation. (Ven rebo Arigo)