‘Cebu City Medical Center needs P350 million’

THE head of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) proposed a 50 percent increase in the hospital’s annual budget for 2012 to purchase more medicines and hire additional personnel.

Dr. Eduardo Sedoripa, acting hospital chief, said the hospital needed more money for a total budget of P350 million next year, up at least 50 percent from this year’s P210 million.

He said CCMC has a minimal budget of P20 million for the purchase of drugs and medical supplies this year.

“We have to assure that all drugs and medicines will be available at CCMC so that we don’t have to go out to purchase the medicines that we lack,” he said.

“All (outsourced) services should already be available in the hospital.”

Of this year’s P210-million appropriation, P145 million is spent on personnel services while the remaining P65 million is spent on Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE).

The MOOE includes the P20-million drugs and medical supplies budget.

Sedoripa said CCMC is able to acquire only basic medicine and intravenous fluids.

He said CCMC already appropriated P10 million to drugs and medical supplies for the first half of this year but not all items have been delivered because of delays in the bidding process.

To address this, he proposed the creation of a special Bid and Awards Committee (BAC) dedicated to hospital purchases.

CCMC’s nursing department, meanwhile, lacks 84 staffers. More doctors are needed in the pediatrics, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology and internal medicine departments.

Sedoripa said lack of space is another concern.

In the pediatrics ward, they are using cribs instead of regular hospital beds to conserve space.

Sedoripa said that since CCMC caters to indigent patients, they depend on the city’s subsidy for their operations.

About 70 percent of hospital patients are indigents who have problems paying the bills.

CCMC’s accounting report showed that the hospital was supposed to earn P56.6 million from January to May 2011.

However, they collected only P12.8-million cash. They have P21.1 million in receivables. Patients availed of free services worth P22.7 million.

Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young said he supports Sedoripa’s request for additional appropriation in 2012.

“I do not want to sell CCMC. We only need to improve its management,” Young said.

Young said the Guba satellite hospital is undergoing renovation and also needs funds from the city.

“The Guba hospital has been left unattended so no one goes there,” he said.

Young said he wanted a satellite hospital built in the south. A half a hectare property in barangay Bonbon earlier donated to the city by its private owner may be used for a hospital and college campus extension.

Mayor Michael Rama said he will discuss with Sedoripa the proposed increase in the city hospital’s budget.

He said he is open to a budget increase as long as there would be a return on investment.

“We cannot keep on spending and not see a reduction in the city’s health problems,” he said. With correspondent Edison A. Delos Angeles