Senate pushes for increasing bed capacity
of Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center

The Senate today approved on third and final reading a bill seeking to increase the bed capacity of a hospital in Cebu City.

Sen. Teofisto "TG" Guingona III, author and sponsor of Senate Bill No. 2767, said the proposed measure seeks to increase the bed capacity of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City from 800 to 1,200.

Senate President Franklin Drilon said the measure was meant to support the development of Central Visayas' health sector, especially in terms of boosting the government's ability to deliver various medical services to a greater number of its constituents.

"The Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center is the biggest government-run medical facility in Region VII. It does not only serve patients from Metro Cebu and Region VII, but also patients from parts of Mindanao," Guingona said in his sponsorship speech.

Guingona said more and more patients in the region have flocked to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center due to the increasing costs of medical care in private hospitals and the failure of public health facilities to provide needed services.

He said records show that in the past 10 years, the medical center's occupancy rate dramatically increased from 100 percent to 122 percent.

The additional bed capacity, he added, would make the medical center more responsive to the changing needs of the community.

"Through the years, the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center strove to improve its health care services to its residents and patients from nearby areas. It's present capacity prevents it from servicing its increasing number of patients which, in effect, defeats the very purpose of providing universal health care to as many patients as possible," Guingona said.

"The proposed upgrading of the medical center is in line with the present thrust of the Department of Health to enhance health facilities, to improve access to quality care and to scale up public effort to attain health goals," he added. (Pilar S. Macrohon)