DOH Grants P50M to CCMC for MRI

The Department of Health has promised to give a P50 million grant to the Cebu City Medical Center that will be spent to acquire a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine so that its patients will no longer have to worry if they need to have that particular laboratory service.

CCMC acting director Gloria Duterte said the DOH officials only approved P50 million of the P300 million that they had requested.

Duterte said P200 million of her request to DOH is for the construction of an additional hospital building while the P100 million is for  medical equipment. The request for the infrastructure projects was denied because there were no supporting documents, Duterte explained.

But the DOH officials still advised Duterte to submit another request, this time it should be complete with the required documents like the Programs of Works and Estimates of the hospital building, the ownership of the land where the building is to be constructed and other papers.

The MRI equipment is in the priority list of Duterte because the CCMC has never had an MRI machine since its establishment, which is why the DOH approved her request.

MRI is a procedure used in hospitals to scan patients and determine the severity of certain injuries. An MRI machine uses a magnetic field and radio waves to create detailed images of the body. Among the common reasons people go to get an MRI are for a sprained ankle or back pain.

Meanwhile, Duterte proudly announced yesterday that from January to March 31, the CCMC had served over 32,000 patients, most of them are out-patients or those who do not have to be confined in the hospital.

Duterte also installed closed circuit television (CCTV)cameras in some parts of the hospital; one of them is in the emergency room so that she may be able to observe how the personnel attend to patients even if she is in her office.

“Gituyo nako nga butangan ang emergency room aron nga makita nako kon giatiman ba dayon nila ang mga pasyente,” Duterte said.