Samar hospital suspends operations due to losses amid pandemic

TACLOBAN CITY –– A private hospital in Calbayog City in Samar has temporarily ceased operations due to losses incurred amid the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

The Our Lady of Porziuncola Hospital Inc. (OLPHI) closed its doors to patients starting Feb. 4. until August this year.

Arnita Sabong, hospital administrator, said in an interview over Radyo ng Bayan-Calbayog that the OLPHI could no longer pay its 115 staff members and medical personnel.

She said the hospital has been incurring monthly losses of P3.6 million since the pandemic started.

Sabong said the decision to close OLPHI for six months was announced to them by their chief executive friar officer, Fr. Jun Hungco.

“The hospital management is now conducting its inventory and is mulling the possibility of inviting a private investor to help them recover the losses that they have incurred over the last few months,” she said.

Sabong said the hospital management earlier planned to shut down its operations in October last year but decided to defer it.

“But with a huge cost that the OLPHI incurs with almost no income, the management has decided to stop its operations for six months.,” she said.

The 80-bed capacity OLPHI-Calbayog started its operation on May 31, 2007, and is managed by the Order of Friars Minor of the Custody of St. Anthony of Padua of the Southern Philippines.

With the temporary closure of OLPHI-Calbayog, the city has three remaining hospitals, namely, the St. Camillus Hospital and the Calbayog Sanitarium and Hospitals, both private health facilities, and the Calbayog District Hospital.

LZB