SP cool to Lim’s hospital
ANOTHER MULTI-MILLION PROJECT DEAL
WHERE’S the plan?
This, among others, was the question raised by the majority in the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) on the Maternal and Children Lying-in Hospital proposed by the Dagupan City government.
Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, chair of the SP, said the city council has not received a copy of the project’s feasibility study, which reportedly was prepared by a technical working group of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC).
Failing to present a copy, City Administrator Vladimir Mata, merely asserted that the project has been approved by the City Development Council as a flagship project of Mayor Benjamin Lim and it is included in the city’s Annual Development Plan (AIP) to be funded under the 20 percent development plan.
City hall included a P10 million fund for the hospital in its proposed P581 million in the 2012 budget.
The hospital is proposed to be built on a 10,000 square meter lot currently occupied by the Juan P. Guadiz Elementary School on A. B. Fernandez West.
The plan is to relocate the Juan P. Guadiz Elementary School, to the present location of the City Engineering Office (CEO) where the Waste Management Division (WMD) is also holds office.
The CEO and WMD, in turn, will also be provided new offices.
An initial P10 million fund was earmarked by city hall last year for the project but no progress since the school could not be relocated.
HIGH COSTS
Councilor Karlos Reyna and Fernandez pointed out that the project, to be built with a P43 million budget just to accommodate 4 indigent mothers daily, can hardly be justified considering the presence of the expanded Region 1 Medical Center and some six other private hospitals with charity wards.
The building is targeted for completion in 2014, thus P13 million will again be sought in 2013 and another P10 million in 2014 for a 24-bed clinic.
SP members noted that the targeted P43 million does not cover operating costs and the salaries and allowances of personnel, initially comprising nine nurses, three doctors and other personnel working 24/7 in three shifts.
The hospital is envisioned as a Level 1 primary hospital with a 24-bed capacity catering to pregnant mothers in Dagupan who the city hall claims have no means to give birth in private hospitals nor in the government-owned Region 1 Medical Center (R1MC).
It was also pointed out that to relocate and construct the new school buildings, the city will eventually have to appropriate money for it in addition to the P43 million fund for the hospital.
Mata admitted the city has not received the approval of the Department of Education to transfer the elementary school.
Meanwhile, City Health Officer Leonard Carbonell said the city is already applying for a license to operate the hospital with the Bureau of Hospital Services under the Department of Health.
Mata and Carbonell appeared before the SP on Wednesday to justify the P10 million fund request for the planned hospital.
In defending the project, Carbonell cited statistics indicating there are 3,400 mothers giving birth in the city annually, of which 1,800 do it in their homes for lack of money.
ALTERNATIVES
Fernandez said that there may be no need for Dagupan to build its own hospital since Region 1 Medical Center is upgrading from a 300-bed capacity to more than 1,000 beds starting this year.
Dr. Rico Reyes of R1MC told the city council that R1MC will have enough rooms for mothers from Dagupan and all over Region 1 as the maternity ward is being extended from 60 beds to more than 100 beds.
Dr. Reyes also said that while R1MC does charge patients, indigent pregnant mothers enrolled with the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) do not have to pay.
Fernandez said the city would need less funds to enroll more indigent families with PhilHealth than building its own hospital.
Other members of the SP who questioned the feasibility of the proposed hospital were Councilors Maybelyn Fernandez, Luis Samson Jr. Alvin Coquia, Librada Reyna and Jeslito Seen.
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