GENERAL SANTOS CITY (24 December 2014) – One hundred and fourteen indigent in-patients of the General Santos City Hospital were discharged Tuesday ( December 23) without paying their hospital bills through the amnesty program of the Department of Health (DOH) in partnership with the city government.
The Medical Assistance Program (MAP) is the amnesty program of the DOH that downloads funds to different city and municipal hospitals to help those patients who are not enrolled in PHILHEALTH.
These 114 released patients are those who were confined at the hospital who do not have PHILHEALTH membership.
City Hall spent more than P1 million to shoulder their bills.
The city hospital received P6 million from DOH Region 12 on the first week of December 2013.
Personnel from the City Social Welfare and Development Office are assigned to screen the patients if they are qualified or not to avail of the amnesty program.
Once a patient is deemed qualified, his/ her entire bills will automatically be shouldered by the city hospital through the allocated funds of DOH.
City Mayor Ronnel Rivera has already instructed the administrators of the city hospital that they should cater even those who are not residing here in General Santos.
“In this way,” Mayor Rivera said, “we can help these needy people who are currently confined in our hospital. But more than that, we are also slowly decongesting the number of our patients.”
Regie Teves, 29, of Barangay Tambler is one of the grateful beneficiaries of the said program.
“My wife was sent here to undergo a Caesarean operation upon giving birth to our first child. Our bill is only around P5,000 but we cannot pay it because we are poor,” Teves said.
“That is why I am really happy for this program by the mayor and the DOH because they really help unfortunate people like us. This is the greatest Christmas gift for me,” he added.
Gabrielle Fernandez, assistant head of the city hospital, said that they are hopeful that the DOH will give more funds to the city next year so that they can continue this program.
“If we can submit a fully liquidated and detailed report to the DOH national office, then we can ask for more funds for our amnesty program,” Fernandez said. (Gensan CPIO/ Ian John M. Lagare)
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