Cebu PB Wants to Put Social Workers in Each District Hospital to Aid Poor Patients

The Cebu Provincial Board (PB) committee on budget and appropriations has suggested the assignment of a social worker in every district hospital in the province to attend to the needs of indigent patients.

The suggestion came after the death of a one-year-old child early this month.

The committee made the suggestion when the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO) presented its 2016 budget during the budget hearing at the vice governor’s conference room Wednesday.

PSWDO head Rose Zosa proposed a budget of PHP104.8 million for next year, an increase from PHP84 million this year.

Zosa also proposed to increase the “assistance to individual in crisis situation (AICS)” from PHP13 million this year to PHP20 million next year.

Zosa said AICS is the assistance given to the indigent patients from the different municipalities that are referred to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.

Cebu PB Member Grecilda Sanchez said the AICS should also be available in every provincial and district hospitals and a social worker should be assigned in the district hospitals for 24 hours.

She said this is to prevent the incident in the Minglanilla District Hospital where one-year-old Mary Jane Bariquit died after she was reportedly not properly attended to when she was brought there in the evening of Nov. 7. (PNA) LAP/EB/RSM