Gensan City Hospital gets P6M from DOH

By IAN JOHN M. LAGARE

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (5 December 2014) - The local government unit of General Santos City (LGU-GSC) has received an early Christmas gift from the Department of Health (DOH) in the form of P6 million as hospital funds.

DOH 12 Regional Director Dr.  Teogenes Baluma handed the P6 million check to Committee on Health chairperson City Councilor Rosalita Nuñez, City Health Officer Dr. Edgardo Sandig, City Hospital Director Dr. Benjamin Pagarigan, and City Administrator Atty. Arnel Zapatos on December 01 at the Oval Gymnasium.

According to Dr. Baluma, the amount will be utilized by the city hospital to cater to in-patient indigents pursuant to DOH Administrative Order No. 2014 – 0024 (Guidelines on Medical Assistance to Indigent and Poor Patients in Government Hospitals).

“I hope this gives our indigent patients a degree of confidence to avail the services of the city hospital, knowing that we allocated budget for them,” said Dr. Baluma.

City Mayor Ronnel Rivera has ordered that a part of the P6 million will be used to cater to those in-patients who are still not registered under Philhealth.

The mayor assured that the funds will be properly utilized consistent to Commission on Audit guidelines to avoid misuse.

“We want to guarantee to our constituents that the city hospital is ready to serve them. In fact, we are also in partnership with different government agencies and NGOs in providing better facilities, equipment, and medicine supplies to our hospital,” Mayor Rivera said.

Since 2008, the DOH has already given P144 million for the improvement of the hospital. This amount was used to procure hospital facilities and conduct refurbishment to the hospital building.

This year, the LGU-GSC has secured a total of P67 million from DOH. (Gensan CPIO/ Ian John M. Lagare)