Protests vs Fabella transfer to go on

HEALTH workers groups vowed on Monday to continue barricading the entrance to the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital to prevent its management and the Department of Health (DOH) from transferring the so-called “baby factory” to its temporary home at the Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP) in Quezon City.

The Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) and Save Fabella Hospital Movement also disputed the reasons cited by the DOH and hospital officials in implementing the modernization and transfer of the 65-year-old maternity facility to a new and bigger building in the DOH compound.

AHW president Robert Mendoza said in a statement on Monday that the Home Guaranty Corp.’s letter to former Fabella director Dr. Ruben Flores in September 2015 ordering the hospital management to vacate the premises to give way to an urban development project indicated that the issue was lot ownership and not safety.

Last week, the Fabella management announced that the hospital was pushing through with its transfer to a new building at the DOH compound in May next year, citing findings that four of its eight buildings had “reduced structural integrity.” In the meantime, it will temporarily move its operations to a three-story building at the LCP.