City hospital is still for sale
By Rene U. Borromeo
Friday, August 29, 2008
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said that if there is a buyer willing to shoulder half of the termination fees for the 700 employees of the Cebu City Medical Center, he’d be willing to sell the facility.
This as the mayor continues to be unsatisfied with the performance of the city-run hospital.
The proceeds from the sale would be used to enroll the poor of the city under the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth) to allow them access to health care. He also plans to improve the delivery of health services to the barangays.
The mayor estimates that to terminate the services of the workers would cost about P50 million.
Once a buyer would express interest to cover half of that amount, he’d endorse the sale to the city council for approval.
The CCMC is a 41-year-old facility that has been the subject of many complaints. It has a capacity of 200 beds.
The opposition in the city has criticized the plan of the mayor.
Lahug barangay captain Mary Ann de los Santos, who challenged Osmeña in last year’s elections, said instead of selling the CCMC the mayor should make the city-run hospital an effective tool to serve the residents’ health needs.
Osmeña explained that his plan is still not final and he is willing to accept suggestions.
“We are willing to listen with a smile on my face. We are just responding to feelers sent to us. It is my job to do what is best for the city and to see how our money is spent as wisely as possible.”
In the Cebu City’s official website, CCMC is defined as a hospital mandated “to provide holistic, quality health care services to residents of Cebu City which are client centered, cost effective through competent, committed and compassionate personnel and accredited medical and paramedical training program.”
The city’s main objective is to make the Cebu City Medical Center a “world-class hospital” but the mayor said until now he is not satisfied of the performance of the hospital workers.
“They are the problem. It’s very hard to do reforms at the CCMC because they have a culture of thinking for themselves. They have been given so many warnings since in 2001, but still they failed to secure an international standard of services,” the mayor said.
But de los Santos argued that the problem why CCMC failed to come up with a satisfactory performance is not with the employees themselves, but it is because the city officials are lack of concern of the people’s health needs.
Of the P160 million annual budget for the CCMC, more than P100 million is intended for the personal services or the salaries and allowances of the employees manning the government hospital.
“Ang husto unta ilang gigahinan og daku nga kantidad ang CCMC aron nga makapamalit sila’g daghang mga tambal og makadugang sila og mga maayong medical equipment nga magamit sa pag-atiman sa mga pasyente,” de los Santos said.
Among those interested of buying the CCMC is the University of San Carlos (USC), probably because they want that they will have a hospital for its nursing students to undergo training.
Osmeña had already proposed to close the CCMC in 2002 also because of inefficiency of the management and personnel where some of them had figured in anomalies, aside from their alleged laxity that resulted to the death of patients.
Among those patients who died when he was brought to the CCMC a few years ago was the driver of Osmeña that prompted the mayor to criticize the hospital management.
Osmeña said if the city will no longer be the one to operate the hospital, it can already use the P160 million budget that is intended for the CCMC to improve the barangay health centers by buying them enough drugs and medicines, and to shoulder the PhilHealth contribution of those indigent families.—
Cebu City Medical Center; for sale?
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