New design, hope for city hospital
In the place where I used to reside in Magallanes Street, the Cebu city government through Lucelle Mercado and Probe head Raquel Arce was able to clear and clean up what used to be a gasoline station surrounded by ambulant vendors’ shanties.
The place became a haven for snatchers and miscreants who flee into the warren after their mischief to avoid the police. Today peace and order has been restored. It’s no longer a crime den. Thank you to Ms Mercado and Arce and the GASA program in City Hall.
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CARE CCMC has presented a proposed design for a new Cebu City Medical Center. There were no negative reactions from the City Council except for a few questions that were answered by Dr. Shawn Espina and architect Miko Espina.
The proposed new hospital will be built at its original location and will be developed as part of an integrated disaster command with the fire department and City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) in one building within the city hospital.
I asked Dr. Espina what happened to their initial proposal to build this at the South Road Properties and was told that the Department of Health didn’t agree to it because of its policy requiring that hospitals should not be built in areas fronting the sea so that in times of emergency it can have access to all roads so as not to hamper operations during a calamity.
I asked what about the location of Chong Hua and University of Cebu Med that are constructing their own hospitals in Mandaue City’s Reclamation Area.
Dr. Shawn answered that both are private hospitals, so I surmise that they are not covered by the DOH circular.
In the plan, Panganiban Street would be realigned to the hospital’s location to provide a bigger site for the new medical center for Cebu City. Based on the design presented, the new CCMC would have six stories and would be outfitted with modern equipment.
The proposal calls for running it like a semi-private hospital where management is left to the doctors. This would correct the erroneous setup where politicians who are not doctors decide on crucial management matters like hiring and firing as if doctors themselves are not qualified to determine who are most qualified for hospital work.
In previous years, politicians dipped their dirty fingers in running CCMC which led to its dismal performance. The best contrast is the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center which is managed by doctors and insulated from politicians.
One councilor is recommending that a ward for the elderly be included in the proposed new city hospital. Unfortunately, the councilor is not a doctor and is not aware of the repercussions of his suggestion. I think it’s best to leave medical matters to the experts.
I hope the new city hospital will be insulated from politics and run professionally like a private facility.
It should be a hospital for all, accessible to indigent patients as well as the rich who may be accommodated provided they pay for their confinement .
