VSMMC cancer center breaks ground

CEBU, Philippines - The Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center is expanding its services to the less privileged by providing more facilities.

The hospital’s proposed cancer center broke ground yesterday afternoon with no less than Health Secretary Janette Garin laying the time capsule. VSMMC was one of the five government hospitals chosen by the Department of Health to establish a cancer center to address the need for accessible radiation therapy services.

 The proposed cancer center will be the third in Central Visayas and the only government-owned facility that would provide affordable and quality treatment services for indigent cancer patients.

Garin said the facility will be provided with linear accelerator, treatment planning system, CT (computed tomography) simulator, and brachytherapy units.

The operations of the equipment may be sustained by reimbursements from the benefit packages of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation. PhilHealth-sponsored program members, including indigents identified by the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) database, are entitled to no-balance billing when they avail of these services.

This facility will benefit much the underprivileged suffering from cancer illnesses, which has been considered the third leading cause of deaths in Central Visayas.

The cancer center will be constructed at the VSMMC tennis court with a budget of P475.8 million.

VSMMC also inaugurated yesterday the PhilHealth Ward and the Central Sterile Supply Department.

VSMMC medical director Dr. Gerardo Aquino and Garin had the formal signing of the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act 10770, which raised the hospital’s bed capacity from 800 to 1,200.

Aquino, however, said the patients’ census is still beyond the present bed capacity of the hospital.

“Our policy here is walay balibaray. As long as manginahanglan og tabang among dawaton but we have to explain to them the situation. We cater patients from different regions and we even have patients as far as Mindanao,” Aquino said.

With the cancer center soon, Aquino is expecting the number of patients to soar, especially that the VSMMC is capable of an open heart surgery and kidney transplant. (FREEMAN)