Funds for hospital food restricted in Eastern Samar

Funds for food for indigent patients at a hospital run by the Eastern Samar provincial government had stopped coming, forcing hospital staff to dig into their pockets to feed the poor patients and raising the specter of the patients being left to fend for themselves.

At least P1.4 million is due the hospital in Borongan City for food, but the money has been put on hold by the office of Conrado Nicart, governor of the province.

Dr. Salvador Evardone, head of the Eastern Samar Provincial Hospital in Borongan, said he wrote to the governor last Jan. 16 but no reply came until Thursday.

Evardone said as a result of the absence of the funds, hospital staff had to spend personal money to buy food for at least 70 indigent patients. Very few of the patients are covered by the government’s health insurance through the Philippine Health Insurance Corp, said the doctor.

Evardone said hospital staff might have to ask the patients to bring their own food if the situation worsens.

Aside from the Borongan hospital, four district hospitals and seven community hospitals run by the provincial government are in the same bind.

The four districts hospitals are in the towns of Taft, Oras, Balangiga and Guiuan while the seven community hospitals are in the towns of Arteche, Llorente, General MacArthur, Quinapondan, Can-avid, Dolores and Homonhon Island.

The provincial hospital of Eastern Samar has a 120-bed capacity while the district hospitals have 25-bed capacities. Community hospitals in the province have 10-bed capacities.

An administrator of a district hospital, who asked not to be identified, said that she was also forced to use her personal money to provide food for patients.

She said her hospital was supposed to receive at least P30,000 a month for food but the governor’s office stopped releasing the money.

She said the hospital’s budget for the purchase of oxygen tanks have been hurt by the lack of funds. The hospital currently has only 13 oxygen tanks left.

The hospital usually receives at least 36 oxygen tanks per quarter, she said.

Attempts to reach the governor through his mobile phone and at his office at the provincial capitol proved unsuccessful.

But the governor’s media officer, Crescentia Quitorio, said Nicart would address the issue.

“There is a problem involving this fund. But right now, I could not answer all the questions,” Quitorio said by phone.

However, she declined to elaborate on what problems are hounding the funds.