Poor patients in General Santos happy to get free hospitalization

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines—For nearly a week, 29-year-old Regie Teves of Barangay Tambler here tried to figure out where to get the P5,000 to settle the accumulated hospital charges so that his wife and first born can go home from the General Santos City General Hospital.

“My wife was sent here to undergo a Cesarean operation upon giving birth to our first child. Our bill is only around P5,000 but we cannot pay it because we are poor,” Teves said.

He said he started losing hope about spending Christmas at home with their newborn.

But then, just a few days before Christmas, Teves could not believe what he heard.

His wife and their child would be discharged and he was not paying a single cent any more.

One hundred thirteen other indigent in-patients at the General Santos City Hospital were also discharged along with Teves’ family on Tuesday through the amnesty program of the Department of Health (DOH) and the city government.

Under the Medical Assistance Program (MAP), the DOH and various local governments agreed to shoulder the hospital bills of patients, who are not Philhealth members.

The city hospital previously got P6 million from the DOH in Central Mindanao while the city government contributed P1 million for the program. Part of that fund was used to settle the bills incurred by patients such as Teves’ wife and the 113 others.

Mayor Ronnel Rivera said the amnesty was a great help for indigent patients, especially those who are not from the city.

“But more than that, we are also slowly decongesting the [hospital],” he said.

Gabrielle Fernandez, assistant head of the city hospital, said they were hoping to submit a “fully liquidated and detailed report to the DOH national office” any time so that more patients could benefit next year.

“We can ask for more funds for our amnesty program,” Fernandez said.

“I am really happy that there is program like this from the mayor and the DOH because they really help unfortunate people like us. This is the greatest Christmas gift for me,” Teves said. Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao