The facilities and services of the city government-run J.R. Borja General Hospital could have been improved if the equipment, drugs and medicines donated by other sources were accepted.

Former City Hospital Chief Dr. Vincent Tero disclosed that too much politics played at the city hall-run hospital pushes it into a “pitiful” state.

“The order of the day is not to accept any donation coming from the opposition bloc especially from Senator Aquilino Pimentel, Reps. Rolando Uy and Rufus Rodriguez,” he said.

Tero who also served as City Health Officer during the incumbency of Mayor Vicente Emano and then was later detailed to the Philippine National Red Cross –Mindanao Blood Bank when he accommodated some P2 million worth of medicines from Pimentel sometime in 1997.

He said during his stay with the city hospital, he accepted a donation of CT Scan from Pimentel, but he was allegedly ordered to reject the same and later transferred to the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC).

“Naa unta’y CT scan ang city hospital. Dili na unta mobayad ug tag-tres mil ang mga pasyente sa dakbayan kung magpa-CT scan pero wala dawata,” he stressed.

Another CT scan coming from Rep. Uy was about to be delivered to the city hospital last year, but was again rejected by the present administration without any justifiable reason.

Tero said the present administration has made the city hospital into a “pitiful” state including it’s services to the public.

“Bisan gapas ug alcohol wala diha. Tambal pa kaha hinoon,” he added.

A reliable source said that according to the Dr. Tero operating equipment lamps and other equipment are no longer serviceable.

The hospital use fluorescent lamps as incubator for premature babies.

“Ang suga kahulogon. Gihiktan na lang. Mahadlok ang gi-operahan,” he said.

He said that turning-over the entire responsibility of the city hospital to the Department of Health (DOH) is the only solution to uplift the status of the city hospital.

Members of the opposition bloc is set to conduct an investigation on Tero’s disclosures.

Earlier, Dra. Fe Tagayuna, who was appointed by City Mayor Constantino Jaraula to head the city hospital but later resigned from office after she was reportedly detailed to one of the urban barangays.

Assistant Minority Floor Leader Roger Abaday said Tero’s pronouncement is a clear indication that the city hospital has been manage badly.

“Maulaw kita sa katawhan nga instead of improving it’s services to the public it has become an awkward health service provider. This should be corrected,” he said. by LITO RULONA Gold Star Daily News Mindanao

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LAST week, a front-page story in this paper unwittingly exposed what right-thinking officials and ordinary citizens could only whisper about since the current administration took over.

It illustrated how privileged Vice Mayor Vicente Emano is, how the rest of officialdom has been indulgent towards miscreant behavior, and how dysfunctional is governance in this city.

So privileged is Mr. Emano that he can ignore the House Rules of the branch of government he heads without being sanctioned or held to account for his misdeed.

As the Council’s presiding officer—its leading member—he seems to regard himself as above and beyond its rules. Section 70 states that any member incurring four (4) consecutive absences from its sessions is liable to censure, reprimand, or suspension. But he ignores it with the confidence of one who knows no one would dare apply it on him.

Not only has he been absent 4 consecutive times many times, he hasn’t bothered to show up 94 consecutive times! That’s 94 out of 95 sessions—a 99.9 percent failure rating! A clear case of abandonment, dereliction of duty, ignorance, or incompetence. Or all of the above.

But until Councilor Zaldy Ocon and his allies denounced it on the floor last week, no one at City Hall bothered to raise the issue.

This puts into question the fitness and dedication of the city councilors as well as the wisdom of the City Government’s acts or decisions.

In failing to act on the aberrant behavior of its presiding officer, the council appears as an irresponsible body or, worse, as a co-conspirator in the designs of a wrongdoer.

Sure, Mr. Emano is the second highest official of our city; but no one should fear questioning his deviant behavior. His habitual truancy has deprived the council of leadership and direction in its proceedings, making it an unreliable body for policy-making or legislation.

One can forgive a public servant’s occasional lapses, but to be A SLACKER ALL OF THE TIME is unforgivable.

In his duty as presiding officer of our legislature, Mr. Emano performed once and only once. He did so only to bang the gavel for the council’s opening session two years ago on July 5, 2007. After that, he never showed up again.

His excuse? He was on “official business.” What “official business” is he talking about? His principal and official duty is to steer the Council’s proceedings, along with signing all warrants drawn on the city treasury for all its expenditures. This is ordained by both the Local Government Code and its implementing rules and regulations.

Perhaps he relishes doing only the withdrawals from the treasury — the money-dispensing part of his job, not the presiding part!

He has been quoted as saying that “presiding or even attending regular council sessions was not his cup of tea as he dislikes ‘debates’ that are common in legislative sessions.”

If so, why did he seek the office? Did he run in ignorance of its duties or under false pretenses? Didn’t any of his lawyers, including his allies in the Council, inform him that debates are the heart and soul of legislation?

Ask any parliamentarian. Deliberation, exchange and consensus leading to resolution are the essence of the legislative process. Without these, legislation and its wisdom or propriety is inchoate.

Without debate and deliberation, mediocrity would rule; half-baked policy would result; decisions would not benefit from collegial exchange; and ideas or proposals would not be refined by collective wisdom and experience.

Mr. Emano’s zero presence means he has zero contribution to the crafting or refining of city policy and program planning. It means that the collegial process of legislating for an effective city government does not benefit from his service. It also means that his insistence on acting like a mayor is out of place and an assault on a co-equal branch of government.

One thing sure, he has never missed collecting his salary and all sorts of emoluments from Day One. Truancy has earned him hundreds of thousands yearly, plus more from bonuses and other allowances. It is an indecent way to earn a living or to hang on to power. But no one tells him.

It’s time to awaken and stamp out deviant political behavior. A good start would be to watch the City Council in session and behold how it conducts business without its presiding officer. Street Talk, Manuel Valdehuesa of Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro

Troop to City Hall tomorrow, Tuesday. Session starts 9:00 a.m.
Email your take on this: valdeman_esq@yahoo.com

With doctors’ exodus, hospital is nearing paralysis, says Rep. Rodriguez

CITY Hall is to blame for the series of resignations of doctors at the city-run JR Borja General Hospital, Cagayan de Oro 2nd district Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said.

“What happened now to the JR Borja hospital is that there is mismanagement, and our good medical professionals who have offered their services there can’t work effectively as they would want to because they lacked support from the City Government,” Rep. Rodriguez told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro in a phone interview.

Rep. Rodriguez authored the bill that would have increased funding for the dilapidated hospital by placing it under the better-equipped Northern Mindanao Medical Center.

Officials had earlier confirmed the resignations of at least 13 doctors, nearly half of the hospital’s regular resident physicians. Three more were set to leave late last week, a hospital insider told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro.

If the situation worsens, the City Hall-operated hospital may be heading for paralysis, crippling its already deteriorating services as a result.
Already, the hospital has cut its consultation to cope up with personnel losses, reducing in effect the volume of patients that can be accommodated in a day.

Poor pay and poor working conditions are among the reasons cited by the doctors in tendering their resignations, said the Sun.Star source, who is also a physician.

What cemented the physicians’ decision to leave the hospital was when City Hall blocked Rodriguez’s bill, the source said.

The bill would have helped the hospital in terms of better facilities and higher compensation for the medical staff, the physician said.
Rodriguez said the resignations were a

“wake up call for our City Government. Had they not objected the bill, the salary grades of nurses and doctors would have increased dramatically because they would be paid by the National Government.

Under the salary grade in the national level, the lawmaker said nurses would receive P18,000 per month and P25,000 to P28,000 for doctors.
Rodriguez also clarified earlier reports that he already dropped the bill.

He said the proposed measure is now pending at the Senate health committee because Mayor Constantino Jaraula had earlier written the then committee chairman, Sen. Pia Cayetano, expressing City Hall’s objection to the bill.

“Medyo na-divide karon ang Senate because of Mayor Jaraula’s objection,” Rodriguez said. “But I already passed around 18 resolutions signed by 18 barangay officials who expressed their intention favoring the annexation of the City Hospital to the NMMC.

The bill being parochial in nature, he said some senators are hesitant to support it because of the local government’s opposition.

Rodriguez said the ball is now in the hands of the City Hall, saying the bill may be revived again if Jaraula reconsiders the administration’s position on the matter. by Annabelle L. Ricalde of Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro

LOW pay and poor working conditions have forced most doctors of the government owned JR Borja Memorial City Hospital to tender their resignations, a hospital insider said.

A city hospital physician, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the doctors resigned as a group as a statement to City Hall that they had lost confidence on the way things are going at the hospital.

Already saddled with patient overload, JR Borja doctors have to contend with lack of medicines and adequate facilities.

Doctors are also inadequately paid compared to other public hospitals, the source said, but clarified that this was not the main reason for the exodus.

The last straw came when City Hall itself scuttled the planned annexation of the City Hospital to the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC).

Had the plan been realized, it would have would have placed the smaller city-run hospital under the national government, increasing its funding along with the salary of the personnel.

“After that nawad-an na sila og gana. Ingon sila wala gyuy mahitabo ini nga ospital(They just lost hope after that. They said nothing good would come out if they stay in the hospital),” the doctor said.

The source said other doctors like him had also planned to quit, but opted to stay hoping “things will change so soon.” Foremost, the physician said he and his colleagues are hoping that City Hall will reconsider its position on the hospital’s conversion into a national medical facility.

A number of City Hall officials confirmed Monday’s resignations of at least 13 doctors. The City Hospital has 31 doctors in its plantilla.

However, officials could not agree what made the doctors quit.

Cagayan de Oro Councilor Dante Pajo, chair of the committee on health and social service, attributed the doctors’ exodus to “conflict of scheduling in their duty hours.”

Most the doctors who resigned had wanted to work for two straight days to cover the mandated 40 or so duty hours and then avail of five days off, Pajo said.

“Nangbalhin ang mga doctors kay nangita’g more lenient working hours siguro. They are all good doctors but we can’t prevent them from transferring,” Pajo said.

But the councilor said the government hospitals can’t bend work schedules to give doctors “lenient schedules.”

“Doctors are obliged to work eight-hour shifts every day. That’s the way government hospitals work because we are in public health service,” he said.

However, City Information Officer Erwin Culanag said most of those who tendered their resignations had said they wanted to “seek greener pastures.”

“Ang sweldo daw ang rason, ubos ra daw para sa ila,” Culanag told Sun.Star, citing his conversation with Dr. Philip Medalle, acting chief of hospital.

Pajo said doctors from the City Health Office (CHO) had been ordered to temporarily cover the night shifts to cover the staff shortage.

Human Resource Department Head Adriano Lumagsao, Jr. said his office had yet to receive copies of the names of the doctors who resigned.

The staff shortage has taken a toll on the services of the hospital, which already has shortened its consultation hours.

City Hall had earlier rejected a bill authored by 2nd district Rep. Rufus Rodriguez seeking the integration of the rundown JR Borja Memorial City Hospital to the better-equipped NMMC.

House Bill 239 provides “for the upgrade and modernization of the J.R. Borja City Memorial Hospital as an extension hospital of the Northern Mindanao Medical Center in Cagayan de Oro and appropriating funds therefore.”

The bill is co-authored by 1st district Rep. Rolando Uy.

The facility the government would use to quarantine people in case of the spread of the Influenza A (H1N1) virus here is only good for five patients. the health department’s spokesperson here said.

Department of Health (DOH) spokesperson Jun Galban said the “Sunshine Building” of the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) would be used as isolation ward in case of the virus breaks out in northern Mindanao.

“It’s not big enough,” he said. But while the isolation ward could not accomodate many patients, the facility is fully equipped, he said.

Galban also assured that health workers from all levels in Region 10 were briefed and were working on infection prevention.

Earlier, health authorities in neighboring Caraga region said three people in region 13 who came from the US were suspected to have the virus.

In another related development, a thermal scanner would be in place at the Lumbia Airport as a measure to monitor travelers in hopes of preventing the virus from making its way into Cagayan de Oro.

Mayor Constantino Jaraula said the thermal scanner would be installed anytime this week courtesy of the Philippine Airlines.

The equipment would enable authorities to identify passengers with fever, one of the symptoms of the deadly flu.

Jaraula also said he hoped authorities in neighboring Caraga have set in place measures against the spread of the deadly flu.

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