ILOILO – The Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) will conduct today a committee hearing on the issues hounding the Western Visayas Sanitarium and General Hospital (WVSGH) in Barangay Inangayan, Santa Barbara town.
Among those summoned to appear were WVSGH chief, Dr. Judy Ann Dumayas and some contract of service (CoS) workers.
SP committee on health and sanitation chair, 1st District Provincial Board member Marcelo Valentine Serag, will lead the hearing.
On Jan. 10, 2nd District Provincial Board member June Mondejar highlighted the issues bugging the medical facility in a privilege speech after a social media post of a WVSGH casual employee caught his attention.
Among the issues were the following:
* delayed salaries
* allowances promised have not materialized – performance-based bonus, productivity enhancement incentive, Philippine Health Insurance Corporation sharing, collective negotiation agreement, hazard fee, subsistence and laundry allowances, etc.
* broken elevator
* no immediate repair of hospital equipment and facilities
* unreliable supplies (bandages, pairs of scissors, alcohol, etc.)
“If it’s true that employees’ salaries are released only every three months, I don’t think they can perform well. And iIf they do not perform well, patients are adversely affected,” said Mondejar.
He added, “If the elevator has not been functional for six months, hospital operations are negatively affected, especially the transfer or mobility of bedridden patients from one level to another level. If hospital equipment and facilities are not functional or are not working well, and if there is a shortage of supplies, patients are undoubtedly affected. Patients, are already suffering physically, emotionally, mentally, and/or economically. Their suffering should no longer be prolonged or worsened by ineffective hospital services. They must be treated well by the hospital workers.”
“But my concerns are the affected employees and patients…They are bothered, they are worried by these internal problems. I don’t think we could afford to be fence-sitters on this issue,” sad Mondejar.
Recently, Cong. Michael Gorriceta of the 2nd District urged the Department of Health (DOH) Region 6 to investigate the matter.
Gorriceta authored Republic Act (RA) 11723 which converted the Western Visayas Sanitarium into a general hospital. Then President Rodrigo Duterte signed RA 11723 on April 29, 2022.
“These issues were seen to have not been resolved even after more than six months of lobbying for their resolution, and up until now, I still receive contentious complaints from my constituents, not only regarding the delay of employee salaries and benefits but also regarding the insufficient services and procedures of the said hospital,” read part of Gorriceta’s letter to DOH regional director Adriano P. Suba-an back in June 2022.
“If these concerns continue without intervention, the health care delivery system and the hospital’s services would be greatly compromised, most specifically for the people who are relying on their services. If these persist, we cannot fully achieve the patient services and offer the advanced health goal that we are eyeing to reach,” according to Gorriceta.
Dumayas spoke to Panay News in an exclusive interview about the issues. She denied that the salaries of their personnel were not released on time.
The hospital has 172 plantilla personnel and 255 CoS workers composed of doctors, nurses, midwives, nursing aids, medical technologists, staff, security, maintenance, and housekeeping, among others.
Dumayas explained that CoS must submit their daily time records (DTRs), statements of account, and monthly reports of accomplishments before their salaries could be released.
For example, she said, their salaries for November 2022 were already released on Dec. 26, 2022, while their December 2022 salaries will be released on the second or third week of January 2023. This flow of salary processing for CoS employees is practiced not only at WVSGH but also in other government offices, according to Dumayas.
She also revealed that the contracts of 255 WVSGH CoS employees expired on Dec. 31, 2022. And of those, 22 contracts were not renewed for 2023.
Of the 22 CoS, the medical center chief said most opted to resign for health reasons, take a break, or look for another job. There were some, too, who were not rehired for failing the performance evaluation./PN
