New hospital bldg for Pinamungajan

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III hopes Pinamungajan constituents get the best medical care from the town’s district hospital with the recent inauguration of a new building that houses a dental clinic, an emergency room, as well as laboratory rooms for x-ray, radiology and ultrasound.

Davide led the inauguration of the Pinamungajan District Hospital’s new building on August 15. He said he hopes that the hospital staff will continue to deliver their best services to those in need of medical assistance, not just to those living in Pinamungajan but also to those residing in neighboring towns.

Also present during the inauguration were Pinamungajan Mayor Honeylette Yapha-Lingad, Dr. Rene Catan of Provincial Health Office, and PHO's chief of public health division Dr. Shiela Paciol, Pinamungajan District Hospital chief, Dr. Feleus Bascon, as well as some representatives from DOH-7.

Yapha-Lingad thanked the governor for making health programs a priority and for responding to their town’s need for a medical facility.

“Let us show to the people that the government is here for the people,” she said.

The new building, which also includes an outpatient department and rooms for administrative offices, cost P12 million with budget coming from the provincial government and from the Department of Health.

Yapha-Lingad said that with the newly- constructed building, it would be easier for her constituents to avail of hospital services.

According to Davide, health programs are at the top of his administration's six key development agenda. He said that the provincial government aims to increase the budget for the Provincial Health Office for 2018.

He added that the Province is also renovating and improving the district hospitals in Bogo City, Carcar City, Danao City and Balamban town in order to elevate them into Level 2 facilities so that patients from far-flung areas will no longer need to travel to Cebu City for medical assistance.

To be identified as a Level 2 facility, a hospital should have departmentalized clinical services such as a high-risk-pregnancy unit, an operational respiratory unit, a general intensive care unit, a tertiary clinical laboratory, a blood station, a neonatal intensive care unit, and a second-level x-ray with mobile unit.

Aside from the inauguration of the new building, Davide also led the ribbon-cutting rites for the hospital’s new facilities including for Tuberculosis-Directly Observed Treatment and the Animal Bite Center. —/JBB (FREEMAN)