MOTHERS who have given birth at the world’s busiest maternity facility, the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital, are joined by their daughters in a campaign to save the 65-year-old institution from being torn down. The DOH is planning to transfer the hospital to the nearby DOH compound on Rizal Avenue. JOCELYN R. UY
An official of the Department of Health (DOH) denied the claim of various groups that the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital will be abolished on Thursday.
In a Radyo Inquirer report, DOH spokesperson Dr. Lyndon Lee Suy said that there have been no talks approving the closure of the maternity hospital.
Lee Suy said that he does not know where the Save Fabella Movement and other militant groups obtained the information regarding the supposed last day of the said health facility on June 9.
He also allayed fears of the striking health workers, saying that should the abolition push through, the displaced workers will be temporarily absorbed by other government hospitals. They will then be brought back once the construction of the new Fabella Hospital is finished.
Affordable medical services will still be provided in the new facility, Lee Suy added.
Various groups have been holding a vigil in front of the hospital to protest the reported closure.
READ: Save Fabella Movement patuloy ang barikada sa Fabella Hospital
In a statement, women’s group Gabriela said that the government should open more maternity hospitals like Fabella and not lessen them.
“Sa halip na sarhan ang Fabella at ilipat ito, na magreresulta ng mas maliit na bilang ng mga buntis na matutulungan, dapat pa nga ay lumilikha ng ganitong mga serbisyo at pasilidad lalo na sa mga liblib na lugar upang mas matugunan ang pangangailangan ng mga kababaihan sa reproductive health,” said Gabriela deputy secretary general Misty Lorin.
(Instead of closing and transferring Fabella which would result in fewer number of pregnant women to be aided, [the government] should create similar services and facilities especially in remote areas to address the needs of women regarding reproductive health.)
Youth group Anakbayan even tagged outgoing President Benigno Aquino III as a “baby killer” for pushing for the closure of the said hospital.
“We denounce the eleventh hour wickedness of the Aquino administration that manifests in its move to close down the famed ‘paanakan ng bayan.’ With this move, we add another moniker to this inhumane president: he is a baby killer,” Anakbayan Secretary General Einstein Recedes said.
Fabella Hospital is known as a “baby factory,” with four to five mothers sharing a single bed. It caters to mothers who cannot afford giving birth at private hospitals.
READ: Save PH ‘baby factory,’ mothers appeal to DOH
It is one of the hospitals under the Aquino administration’s public-private partnership (PPP) program. AJH with reports from Erwin Aguilon, Radyo Inquirer/RAM/rga