Youngest CCMC patients wait in makeshift nursery

While several patients have been discharged, 15 young patients yesterday remained quartered in a chapel with the long wooden pews serving as a makeshift nursery and pediatric ward near the abandoned Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC).

The ward has two dengue patients and four in the nursery with five sick newborn babies.

They will have to stay there until negotiations arranging their transfer to private hospitals have been finalized by the Cebu city government, which vacated the CCMC after the Oct. 15 earthquake due to serious damage to the building.

Interviews with parents and staffers were barred by CCMC hospital chief Dr. Gloria Duterte.

Duterte said Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama instructed her not to allow media interviews with the parents or staffers.

Meanwhile, CCMC staff have been reassigned to hospitals servicing newly transferred city patients like the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, said Councilor Mary Ann delos Santos.

Most patients of the 300-bed CCMC are charity cases from the poorest families. The original 133 patients was thinned to 43 on Friday.

Staff and remaining patients occupy the lobby, gym and chapel of the Bureau of Fire and Penology (BFP) across the street.

An alternative site has yet to be identified, delos Santos said.

At least 11 city residents were sent to the VSMMC, which is already filled beyond its 800-bed capacity.

Dr. Gerardo Aquino, VSMMC director, said he is anticipating more city patients.

“We don’t say no to the patients. We only ask if they have a Letter of Authority from the mayor,” Aquino said. Correspondent Apple Ta-as and Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac