Planned BSL hospital now meaningless, say
THE visit of President Benigno Aquino III in Dagupan City last week further rendered the planned 21-bed capacity Maternal Child Care and Lying-in Clinic of Mayor Benjamin Lim virtually meaningless and a total waste of city’s resources.
Thus said former Councilor Michael Fernandez, who was among those who welcomed President Aquino when he visited Dagupan City to inaugurate the newly-built emergency room complex of Region 1 Medical Center (R1MC) before proceeding to the Liberal Party public rally.
President Aquino inaugurated the emergency room complex built at P23 million bankrolled by the Department of Health and partly from the income of R1MC.
The expected completion of R1MC’s 11-storey medical building that will host 1,500 beds in 2015 can further serve not only mothers giving birth but more indigents in need of professional medical help.
Because it is a tertiary Level III hospital, the only one of its kind in Pangasinan, R1MC is where people would rather go than to a smaller government hospital with limited facilities such as the one being planned by the Lim administration, Fernandez said.
Fernandez said the expansion of R1MC worked out by Congresswoman Gina De Venecia, is part of the Universal Health Care Program of the Aquino administration.
He said the Lim administration cannot justify spending some P40-P50 million for a primary hospital after demolishing a school campus and committing the city to spend millions more annually for its maintenance and operations when there are so many well-equipped hospitals and the PhilHealth is continuously improving its coverage.
He pointed out that the money which the Lim administration expects to spend would be better spent to address the city’s worsening garbage, flooding, drug addiction and shortage of classrooms.
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