Expanded hospital capacity

By: Modesto P. Sa-onoy

AFTER many years of agonizing and pitiful health care situation, the people of Negros will finally have a respite with the passage of Republic Act No. 11441 authored by Bacolod Congressman Greg Gasataya. The law increases the bed capacity of the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City from 400 to 1,000. This more than doubles the capability of the regional hospital. It is not enough to fill the needs of people who cannot afford the cost of private hospitals, but it addresses the concerns of many more.

The Corazon Montelibano Regional Hospital was established in 1926 by the provincial government of Occidental Negros. It started with 100 beds. Thus, it took 93 years for the hospital to reach the 1,000 mark though the law is still to go through the bureaucratic processes that will take some time. Nevertheless, there is hope.

The provincial population at the time (1926) was only 824, 855. That is a ratio of 8,248 people per bed. Today the province has 2,497,261 as of the last census in 2015. We are more than two and a half million now. This ratio is a bit better today than it was. However, the demand for public health care requiring hospitalization due to rising incidence and kinds of illness requiring hospitalization have increased several times more.

Statistics may show a good picture, but the actual reality is different. I have visited the hospital several times and I have seen the congestion of three patients per bed. The patients had to take turns to rest while their “watchers” had to be content in sleeping, sitting on the benches in the waiting area.

There had been improvements during the last few years, but the number of patients and their multifarious needs were faster than the government could provide. Even the construction of new private hospitals and the expansion of provincial and district hospitals could not cope with the demand. There are city and municipal health clinics, however, they are incapable of dealing with certain cases.

Gasataya told reporters that the regional hospital, which currently has a bed capacity of 400, accommodates about 750 admissions every day. That is almost double its capacity. Still, there are times when more than 750 flock to the regional hospital.

President Duterte signed the bill on August 28. It was fast because the Senate passed the Gasataya bill on third and final reading only in June. Reports said that Health Secretary Francisco Duque, former senator JV Ejercito, and Dr. Julius Drilon, chief of the Occidental Negros hospital, cooperated in the early passage of this bill.

Gasataya said that the law will bring in additional funds for the indigent patients who have medical needs, as well as additional nurses, doctors, medicines, and better facilities for the hospital through the Department of Health.

He earlier said that the bill is his commitment to the people – to improve the quality of health care in Bacolod City. Indeed, the Bacolod City government is more concerned with sports and entertainment and glamor projects than health that I think Gasataya chose to expand and improve the regional hospital than establishing a Bacolod City hospital. In that way, Gasataya did not have to step on the top priorities of the administration of Mayor Evelio Leonardia although they belong to the same political party. He fulfilled his promise to his Bacolod constituents without creating cracks in the entertainment priorities of Leonardia.

Gasataya saw the more pressing need to improve the facilities and personnel of the lone tertiary government hospital in the province and he acted without fanfare until his bill became law.

He is optimistic that he could bring in more improvements in the healthcare programs in Bacolod City. He added that he will also fight for the establishment of a Bacolod district hospital while he is in Congress. He has hurdled the most important challenge – getting an important bill in this case so that a district hospital for Bacolod is within reach.

Ironically, while all Occidental Negros congressional districts have a hospital, Bacolod has none. Leonardia prioritize a coliseum and clings to the coattails of the region for a hospital. Gasataya at least corrected this anomalous sense of priorities with the expansion of the regional hospital and we hope he will correct the insensitivity of his party to the healthcare plight of the poor.