Japan cancels grant to city hospital

THE construction of a new building in the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) will be delayed.

A US $10-million grant for the project was cancelled by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) due to the economic crisis following the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan.

The JICA wrote CCMC chief Dr. Eduardo Sedoripa last month explaining the cancellation.

“I’m not disappointed. I understand that Japan needs to be rehabilitated,” Sedoripa told Cebu Daily News.

Although the required documents were submitted to JICA last March, Sedoripa said Cebu City will apply again next year as stated in the letter of JICA.

JICA is a sister corporation of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) the financial agency which granted the P10.24 billion loan for Cebu City’s South Reclamation Project.

The $10 million or P43 million was intended for a new hospital building and the purchase of medical equipment.

“There will still be changes in CCMC but not as big if the grant was just approved,” Sedoripa said.

Sedoripa said they improvised waiting areas to lessen the number of people in some hospital departments and reassigned staff from other departments to busier ones like the emergency room.

For now, CCMC will solely depend on funds from the Cebu city government.

In this year’s proposed Supplemental Budget 2, the city allocated P10 million for CCMC hospital operations.

Acting Mayor Joy Augustus Young said the city will not spend for the new building but would fund the rehabilitation of the hospital.