Regional hospital chief calls on public to treat the center as their own

By Philippine Information Agency (PIA 8)
January 14, 2008

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte  –  Dr. Alberto de Leon, the chief of the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC) called on the public to treat the medical center as their own and help in the maintenance of cleanliness and in the maintenance of the hospital facilities.

Dr. De Leon made the call during the Panindugan television program of the Philippine Information Agency on Thursday.

Dr. De Leon said that as the people wants their homes to be clean and orderly always, they should also do the same when they go to the EVRMC as confined patients or outpatients.

Indeed, it has been observed that some of the confined patients’ companions have not been using the hospital comfort facilities properly. The Center does not have enough budget to be able to hire maintenance people who will particularly be assigned to each of the comfort facilities so the public is urged to help in the maintenance by using them properly, otherwise, they will be the same ones who will be inconvenienced because they are the ones using the same.

The Center has been able to repair the comfort facilities in several sections of the hospital. It has been found that most of the comfort facilities have been clogged with empty PET bottles, stones and many others which are not suppose to be flashed there.

Unfortunately, the Center does not have enough budget to be able to repair all the comfort facilities at the same time, Director de Leon said. Although the presence of a comfort room caretaker does not necessarily solve the problem, he added. The solution lies on the education of clients who are using the facilities.

Aside from the proper use of comfort facilities, Director de Leon also exhorted the public especially the patients’ companions to learn proper garbage disposal. They must throw their garbage in the waste cans which are located in strategic areas within the hospital.

The EVRMC is supposed to be a center of Health, so it must be kept clean and sanitary, Dr. De Leon said.

The EVRMC is the biggest and most busy medical center in the Region, it being a tertiary hospital and an accredited training and study center for medical profession.

The many patients of EVRMC are not only from Tacloban and Leyte but from all over the Region especially patients who are from the rural areas who cannot afford to be confined in private hospitals.

Dr. De Leon laments that even the primary and secondary cases are being brought to the EVRMC. He called on the public that instead of going to EVRMC patients who are primary and secondary cases should instead go to the district hospitals or provincial hospitals which are already more than capable of handling cases such as delivery (giving births), colds, fever, gastro among others.

This way, patients at the EVRMC will not overflow beyond bed capacity. It has been observed that some of the patients are already lying in cots along the aisles of the hospital. This situation happens because EVRMC cannot reject patients especially because many of them come from far places in the Region, Dr. De Leon added.