IF President Duterte signs this bill into law, Samareños may no longer travel for hours to Tacloban City just to avail themselves of full medical and hospital care.
A tertiary care hospital is but a breath away from rising in Calbayog City, Samar, after the Senate approved in plenary session on Jan. 31 a bill creating the medical facility.
2-M residents
The House of Representatives passed a week earlier House Bill No. 8195 creating the Samar Island Medical Center (SIMC), a 300-bed general hospital that could cut long hours of travel time by patients on Samar Island who seek medical care in the nearest tertiary hospital in Tacloban, Leyte province.
Samar has over 2 million residents.
Sen. Christopher Go, the chair of the Senate committee on health and demography, filed the counterpart bill, with Senators Francis Pangilinan, Ramon Revilla Jr., Jose Miguel Zubiri and Franklin Drilon as cosponsors.
Poor Samareños, comprising nearly half of the families in Samar based on 2015 statistics, barely get quality hospital care apart from rural, district and provincial hospitals, due to the absence of state-of-the-art government medical facility anywhere near their localities.
Patients in remote areas of the island have to travel three to eight hours to seek medical treatment at the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC) in Tacloban. The transport difficulty often results in fatalities among those critically ill.
Samar Rep. Edgar Mary S. Sarmiento (first district), who authored House Bill No. 8195, said it was vital to provide affordable and accessible health-care in the region.
His co-authors were Representatives Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez, Yedda Marie G. Romualdez, Angelina Tan, Paul Ruiz Daza, Jose Ong Jr. and Eric Olivarez.
Sarmiento said he expected the President to sign the in the next few days, after which construction of the Samar Island Medical Center will take place soon.
Politics
Critics of Samar Rep. Sharie Ann Tan (second district), including political opponents of her family, noted her apparent lack of support for the hospital measure.
A House document circulating over social media indicated that Tan abstained in voting for the bill’s passage. But in a post, weeks before the measure was tabled for third reading, the lawmaker expressed elation on its passage.
Tan said she did not vote yes or no because she had a pending bill with the Romualdezes, House Bill No. 7448, seeking the establishment of Ospital han Samar.
"Hence, I did not cast an affirmative or negative vote, and it's OK with me if it gets approved,” she explained.
She stressed that her non-action should not be used as a political issue, pointing out that every lawmaker has priority measures that he or she deems beneficial for their respective districts.
Ospital han Samar
Tan’s bill seeks the upgrading and integration of all province-operated hospitals with a total of 850 beds into a single-network of medical facility.
It aims to upgrade the Ospital han Samar-Catbalogan as a tertiary care medical facility, the Ospital han Samar in Calbayog and Basey to Level II, and the Tarangnan and Gandara Community Hospital to Level 1.