Cebu City hospital ‘unfit for occupancy’, engineers say

The 300-bed Cebu City Medical Center was declared “unfit” for occupancy due to damage caused by Tuesday’s earthquake, a blow to charity patients who rely on the city hospital for health care.

Many patients, including the elderly, were evacuated to tents outside the building, when cracks were noticed in columns and posts.

City Hall is asking private hospitals to take them in without requiring a downpayment, which normally starts at P5,000.

The question ahead is how the medical bills will be settled by the city government and for how long.

“There is urgency here that we have to address,” said Mayor Michael Rama who ordered the transfer last night of all patients after city engineers inspected the building and said retrofitting and remedial work was needed “to restore the structural integrity of the building.”

“What is more important is the willingness (to accept our patients) that the other hospitals have manifested,” the mayor said.

CCMC currently has 133 patients, including 55 infants and two newborn babies.

A nursery was set up in the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) and St. Florian Patron chapel where other patients were brought.

The evacuation started right after the 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck past 8 a.m. of October 15.

AFTERSHOCKS

Aftershocks continued to be felt throughout the day yesterday, as stores and banks reopened in Metro Cebu following Tuesday’s Muslim non-working holiday.

Structural engineers were kept busy checking commercial establishments and government buildings to certify them as fit to occupy.

President Aquino yesterday flew in from Bohol and did a quick visit of offices in the Provincial Capitol, the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño whose belfry collapsed, and the Mandaue city public market where two people were killed by debris in the quake.

At the Capitol, where damage is still being assessed in the building, the public will have to transact in makeshift tent offices and tables set up in the parking lot of the compound.

By 11 a.m. Gov. Hilario Davide III sent home employees after a strong aftershock sent employees running out of the building. But department heads were asked to stay on with a “skeleton staff” and serve walk-in clients.

Provincial Administrator Mark Tolentino said clients will not be accommodated in the regular offices of the Executive and Legislative buildings until the Provincial Engineering Offices declares the structures “safe for occupancy.”

“Our operations will remain skeletal force. We will operate on a day-to-day basis because we can’t predict the turn of events in these times,” Tolentino said.

However staff of the disaster management office and social welfare will report in full force as “first responders” in emergencies.

A total of 42 aftershocks were recorded as of 5 p.m. yesterday, although some were too slight to notice.

The aftershocks ranged from 2.6 to 5.1 in intensity in the morning.

These will persist for a week, said Robinson Jorgio of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) but he assured they would not be as powerful as Tuesday’s earthquake whose epicenter was in Carmen town, Bohol.

The tremors occur almost every minute with Bohol residents feeling them more than Cebu.

City Engineer Carmelita Kenneth Enriquez, city hall structural consultant Ariel dela Cruz and contractor Pericles Dakay gave their written recommendation to the mayor yesterday at 4 p.m.

Rama said he will also wait for the joint inspection report of the Philippine Institute of Structural Engineers and the Association of Structural Engineers of the Philippines who sent 12 representatives to Cebu yesterday.

Cebu City Councilor Mary Ann delos Santos said arrangements were made for eight ambulances to ferry CCMC patients to private hospitals in the city and to waive the requirement of downpayments.

Mayor Rama said he will tap the City’s Hospitalization and Medicines Program (CHAMP) and calamity funds to help pay for the patient’s bills.

Delos Santos and CCMC director Gloria Duterte met with hospital representatives in the public and private sector to appeal for accommodations.

So far the government-run Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center and the privately-run St. Anthony’s Hospital and the Visayas Community Hospital committed to accommodate surgical and obstetrics cases in their facilities.

Negotiations are still going on.