• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson yesterday said he is hoping to see “much less” refusal of patient admissions coming from different towns and cities of Negros Occidental, at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City, following the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the provincial government and the Department of Health.
The MOA was signed between Lacson, who represented the provincial government of Negros Occidental, and DOH Undersecretary Mary Ann Maestral, Dr. Joan Cerrada, officer in charge of CLMMRH, DOH regional director Dr. Razel Nikka Hao for Negros Island Region, and Provincial Health Officer Dr. Girlie Pinongan, among other provincial government officials, on October 23.
With the signing of MOA, Lacson said the CLMMRH will be designated as the Apex Hospital. “There will be a new protocol as far as referrals to CLMMRH. They are not supposed to reject us anymore,” the governor said.
But Lacson said that the policy of referral of patients will be studied and agreed upon.
Noting a lot of rejections of admission to CLMMRH before, Lacson said “Now, with this MOA, somehow it strengthens our connection with CLMMRH. So we hope to see much less refusals,” he added.
Designating the CLMMRH as the Apex Hospital within the province’s Health Care Provider Network, the MOA also aims to fully implement Universal Health Care for residents of Negros Occidental.
Under the agreement, the partnership also aims to ensure comprehensive health care delivery from primary to tertiary levels within Negros Occidental. It also manifests the continued support to work towards realizing the full implementation of Universal Health Care for all Negrenses.
The recently signed agreement reaffirms the collaboration to meet access standards for health facilities in alignment with the Philippine Health Facility Development Plan, wherein people shall have access to a primary care facility within thirty minutes of travel time and to a hospital within one hour, a statement from the Public Information Division said.*
