Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia | PHOTO: Gov. Gwen Garcia facebook page
CEBU CITY––Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia on Monday, May 16, announced her plan to upgrade all provincial hospitals after her reelection.
Garcia said she would start this year with two provincial hospitals in the cities of Danao and Bogo in northern Cebu, to be upgraded from Level 1 to Level 2 classification.
“What does this mean? Level 2 allows us to put in more specialists, more doctors, and on our part, we can now increase the bed capacity as well as increase and upgrade the medical equipment that will be made available in all our hospitals,” Garcia said.
The rest of the provincial hospitals in Balamban and Carcar City would follow soon, said Garcia.
Aside from the provincial hospitals, Cebu has 12 district hospitals which the governor also promised to improve.
Garcia said two fully-equipped ambulances would be assigned in the four provincial hospitals, and one each for the 12 district hospitals.
The governor said the provincial government would also sign a memorandum of agreement with the Philippine Institute for Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITAHC).
Garcia wanted accessibility of traditional and herbal medicines to all the hospitals operated by the provincial government. She said she also wanted to put up “wellness centers” in the hospitals.
The provincial government, she said, would also have a farm program in the barangays to include planting medicinal plants, with training from the PITAHC.
“What have I learned during this COVID-19 period? That traditional medicines work. They are inexpensive, of course,” Garcia explained.
“This is to give knowledge to ordinary people. They can drink duwaw (herbal concoctions) and have steam inhalation,” she added.
During the election campaign, opponents and critics of Garcia accused her of neglecting the hospitals operated by the provincial government.