Puerto Princesa City needs new hospital

By Celeste Anna Formoso October 2, 2018, 7:22 pm

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OSPITAL NG PALAWAN: Hospital beds are lining the hallway of the 150-bed capacity Ospital ng
Palawan in Puerto Princesa City. (Courtesy of Ospital ng Palawan)

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan -- A city councilor here has proposed the construction of a
new hospital to accommodate the growing number of residents who need emergency medical and
other health care services.

Puerto Princesa City Councilor Peter Maristela, in a resolution released Monday afternoon, said his
proposal will complement the existing Ospital ng Palawan (ONP) which is now “overcrowded.”

Maristela said the ONP, a provincial hospital, also caters to those from the municipalities of Palawan
aside from city patients.

“Marami sa ating mga kababayan (sa Puerto Princesa) ang kailangang tugunan ang kanilang
pangangailangan sa kalusugan at sila ay hindi maka-afford sa mga services nga private hospitals (A
lot of our constituents in Puerto Princesa need to be provided with their health needs and they
cannot afford private hospitals),” he said.

Maristela noted as early as 2015, he has already suggested studying the idea of establishing a city
hospital.

“In the year 2015, this representation authored a resolution requesting Mayor Lucilo Bayron to direct
the City Health Office (CHO) to conduct a study regarding the possibility of putting up a City Hospital
in Puerto Princesa,” he said in his sponsorship speech.
Maristela added that both the ONP and the Multipurpose Cooperative Hospital (MCH) are catering to
patients way beyond their bed capacity.

The ONP, a 150-bed capacity hospital, is now catering to 320 patients.

The MCH, on the other hand, has a 120-bed capacity as approved by the Department of Health but
is likewise overflowing with patients, he said.

“Patients in some of the hospitals within the city are left resting in the hallways due to the insufficient
number of beds and this may cause the transferring of communicable and transmissible diseases to
other patients,” he warned. (PNA)

MEDICAL CARE IN PUERTO PRINCESA

My musings on medical care started with a friend whose husband is in a health crisis. His care
is expensive and at this point seems very unsatisfactory – but a friend of a friend is offering sort
of a magic bullet, a miracle drug. The catch? It’s very expensive and has to be hand carried
from Manila. And of course most doctors think it is nuts. I’m furious at the very thought that
these ‘friends of friends’ may be trying to rip off this couple when they are under so much stress.
But of course that isn’t the only direction you can follow here. While it is true that medicine is not
a very exact science, help and guidance and true information could and should be so much
easier for ordinary people, simple people who are not doctors, to obtain.
And about the same time as this thought chain started, I began noticing that there are many
nice new things in Puerto these days. Ate lunch in McCoys in SM – lovely, with a terrace and a
sea view! I was sent to Padre Pio to see a particular doctor and found that so congenial! My
friend Bee who runs the Puerto EEL website keeps coming up with new restaurant suggestions
and food outlets. Abanico is now a pleasure to drive over and other roads are looking good.
So why isn’t there more money, both public and private, devoted to good medical facilities and
care? This, after all, is a very basic need!
This is such a major problem: where would one even begin? For me, I would start at the very
most basic level, the medicine for everyone level, skipping the high tech and sophisticated ideas
for medical progress. Maybe some day!!
We need good reproductive health care, across communities, across classes. All barangays
and communities should have health centers with lying in facilities and 24 hour midwife care.
These centers should be able to distribute free contraceptives and some health education. And
they should have doctors on call for emergencies. I know this can be done because ten years
ago my daughter and I started an NGO that does this kind of health care in selected
communities (although no lying in centers yet), and it is indeed an overwhelming need. And
women who are offered these services respond very well.
Such facilities could also include a well baby clinic, even one day a week, so that parents could
bring in small children for general check ups without going all the way down town and spending
the day waiting to see someone.
(Quick aside: I would like to applaud City Health services for animal bites. These seem to work
very well.)
And then of course there is the need for better general care. My major wish here is that we
could decongest hospital corridors and waiting rooms and cut down waiting times so that “going
to the doctor” would seem like a feasible idea even before one reaches the crisis stage. We
have some very good doctors, and they are overwhelmed by the number of patients who want
to see them. I guess we just need many more doctors! And it would be helpful if specialists, at
least, worked by appointment!
My experience in Padre Pio suggested to me that it would be very nice to have a senior clinic, a
place where seniors could wait more comfortably (and for less time) in comfortable chairs, with
free drinking water available. Many clinics do practice some sort of senior priority, but few
places are very welcoming.
Emergency care too needs to be more available to everyone. (Second aside: the city
ambulance service is great!). ERs in all hospitals need more capacity – and ER centers are
needed further from the city.
And then of course NO medical care should be on a pay-as-you-go basis!
I realize these are rather extravagant proposals. Nevertheless it seems wiser (and considerably
more humane) to concentrate on expanding basic services to all rather than more technical,
complicated, and expensive services for the very few.
And it is good to keep our aims front and center even if they seem unrealistic!