ILOILO CITY — The 12 hospitals run by the provincial government here will get more improvement this year.
One of the main features of the PHP559 million supplemental budget approved by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan(SP) last week answers all the needed requirements of hospitals as far as infrastructure is concerned, Provincial Administrator Raul Banias said in a media interview Monday.
Of the PHP559 million supplemental budget, Banias said that PHP246 million of which has been allotted for the hospitals.
A total of PHP169 million will be for infrastructure development, PHP46 million for medical equipment, PHP12 million for medical assistance program, and PHP1-million aid for the hospital needs of the poor.
Aside from this, Banias said that they have also allotted PHP6 million as subsidy to the Mother and Child Hospital in San Joaquin, Iloilo.
“We also increased the wages of our job hires from PHP430 per day to PHP477.72 per day. Our 36 casual with appointments in all hospitals were converted to permanent positions,” he said.
Meanwhile, Banias said they have provided PHP9-million budget for the approved ordinance of board member Lorenz Defensor, which is the provision of annual basic care kits to barangays (villages) situated in geographically isolated and disadvantage areas (GIDA).
Through the ordinance, each GIDA barangay will receive PHP25,000 worth of basic medical kits that will be identified in coordination with the Provincial Health Office. These medical kits contain vitamins, antibiotics and medical equipment, among others.
Banias said they have been doing massive upliftment and improvement of hospitals over the years.
“We have invested PHP1.6 billion facility wise to all those that needed to be improved and all service areas. We have hired more than 600 personnel since three years ago to increase the personnel complement of hospitals,” he said. (Cindy Ferrer/PNA)
