CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY–The government-run Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) here can’t complete its expansion and modernization program if a key component of the department’s proposed budget next year is scrapped.
This was according to Dr. Jose Chan, NMMC chief, who said on Thursday he was worried the Department of Health’s 2019 allocation for its Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP) would be slashed in the ongoing budget deliberations in Congress.
Earlier, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said it was contemplating to submit to the Senate a decreased 2019 budget proposal for DOH’s HFEP, which funds constructions and renovations of public health facilities nationwide.
Chan said the construction of NMMC’s eight-storey Building G will depend on whether HFEP will continue to be funded next year.
Chan said Building G will house the new emergency room complex, the new intensive care unit, the new administrative offices, a two-storey surgical ward, another two levels for private rooms and an audio-visual room, conference rooms, meeting rooms, library and dormitories at the eighth level.
NMMC is also planning to build five bridges to connect the seven buildings inside the compound.
Senator JV Ejercito, who visited NMMC on Thursday, said that as chairperson of the Senate committee on health, he opposed the proposal of Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno to slash the HFEP component, saying this would hamper the modernization efforts of all public hospitals nationwide.
“It is in constructions like these that are funded by HFEP. If we slash that, we are doing a health disservice to the Filipino people,” Ejercito said.
During his visit, Ejercito inspected the ongoing constructions of the five-level NMMC Heart Center and the six-storey Operating Room Complex. (Ercel Maandig/PNA)
