DAVAO CITY—A full operation of the Sarangani’s provincial hospital to at least as a secondary-level referral hospital would save not less than P9 million annually for the province, according to the provincial government.
The amount was expected in the referral system alone of its indigent patients to private hospitals in General Santos City. Only recently did the province announce was finally operating the provincial hospital at the Capitol Complex in Alabel town “as a 24-hour forward triage facility,” but the hospital would be temporarily known as Sarangani Health Care Facility.
For the meantime that the facility was still complying with some legal building requirement such as fire- safety permit, the hospital would only be providing “initial management of clients,” then forward them to the province’s referral hospitals in General Santos City, according to Provincial Health Officer Arvin Alejandro.
“No admissions yet,” said Alejandro, a medical doctor, “until a fire-safety certificate is secured as prerequisite to the issuance of the occupancy permit.”
He added his office would already process the license of the hospital to operate as infirmary facility pending the completion of the operating room by the end of June.
The operating room is funded by the Department of Health (DOH).
“And if we would have the equipment as required of an operating room, then we proceed to the operationalization of the provincial hospital as a Level-1 facility,” Alejandro said.
The provincial hospital was constructed at a cost of P185 million, with P170 million as counterpart from the DOH and P15 million from the provincial government.
The provincial government allocated P13 million for personal services requirement of the hospital since it opened in August 29 last year. This was aside from the P6 million for the maintenance and other operating expenditures and P15 million for the capital outlay for the purchase of equipment required of a Level-1 facility.
Initial mobilization of funds for putting up the hospital started in 2011, and construction began early 2013.
The provincial hospital would complete the loop of five other hospitals ran by the provincial government in the municipalities of Maitum, Kiamba, Maasim, Malungon and Glan.
As the core referral, “it means provision of other services that cannot be provided by our five municipal hospitals,” Alejandro said.
The provincial government wanted to operate this provincial hospital into either a Level-2 or Level-3 facility while the municipal hospitals, particularly in Kiamba, Malungon and Glan, would continue providing Level 1, or infirmary, services.
“All other services on top of it, however, shall be referred to the provincial hospital,” he added.
Municipal hospitals in Maitum and Maasim would remain as infirmary facilities for the meantime, Alejandro said, “but they would be subject to rationalization again depending on the bulk of patients that are coming in.”
Sarangani has an agreement with three private hospitals in General Santos City: Diagan Cooperative Hospital, Soccsksargen County Hospital and Dr. George Royeca Hospital “to cater to its indigent patients, which costs the provincial government some P18 million annually.”
Once the provincial hospital starts operating as Level 1, Alejandro said, the province would terminate its agreement with these hospitals, “which would generate annual savings for the province up to P9 million.”
Every year, Sarangani is allocating P10 million for the enrollment of its 4,600 indigent constituents, with “96-percent average rate of the province’s no billing policy or no out of pocket” of PhilHealth patients in 2017.”
The 4,600 enrollment in Sarangani comprises 90 percent of the total admitted patients in its municipal hospitals.