Marina Villaber, 53, has been going to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City twice a week for the past three years now.
The mother of six from Olango, Aloguinsan has been diagnosed with chronic kidney failure and receives regular dialysis treatment at VSMMC — which is over 60 km. from home.
She said while her treatment is free under the government’s indigency program, she would have to shell out over a thousand pesos each time for transportation and food allowance.
That is why she welcomes the Capitol’s move to open a 15-unit dialysis center at the Cebu Provincial Hospital (CPH) in the neighboring Carcar City because it not only cuts on her travel stress but is also a more viable option financially.
“Pwerte nakong lipaya kay makapa-dialysis nako bisag naa lang mi kwarta nga dosientos,” Villaber told Sugbo News.
“Kumpara didto sa syudad nga ang among libo dili paigo. Unya’g di paka ma-dialysis dayon, dugay pa kaayo ka mauli. Unya ina’g uli nimo, pwerte luyaha, magpakyaw ka na sa’g taxi paingon terminal. Pauli pa, pagkaon pa,” she added, recounting her ordeal.
On Friday, April 21, Gov. Gwen Garcia and Carcar City Mayor Patricio Barcenas inaugurated the 15-unit hemodialysis center at the CPH Carcar.
The dialysis center is the third of such facility in Capitol-run hospitals, with the other two located in the Provincial Hospitals in Balamban and Danao City.
Capitol partners with Medtronix Medical Supplies and Equipment for the operation of the dialysis facilities in Carcar and Danao, which was also inaugurated last week.
Dr. Prudencio Manubag, medical chief of CHP Carcar, said the opening of the dialysis facility in Carcar is timely because the VSMMC is currently being limited from having 35 dialysis units to only 11 now as they await the completion of their much bigger kidney care center.
Dr. Manubag said that last month, CHP Carcar referred 68 dialysis patients from southern Cebu to VSMMC for treatment.
Now, these patients have a nearer and equally equipped option in Carcar City.
“Milagro ang nahitabo niining partikular nga yugto sa kasaysayan sa Sugbo,” Gov. Garcia said in her speech, referring to the extraordinary unity of Cebu officials, as well as the coming-together of the private sector and government agencies whose aim above all is to help the Capitol deliver to the Cebuanos much-needed aid and services.
“Because He (God) has put together the right people at the right time for the right reasons, we will do everything that we can to the least of our brethren. Ang labaw nga mga nagkinahanglang kabos, mao gayod kana ang ato gayong matabangan na karon,” the governor added.
The governor reminded the dialysis patients to avail of government funding for their treatment through PhilHealth and the Malasakit Center, whose chief, Dr. Girlie Veloso, was also present during the ceremony.
San Fernando Mayor Mytha Canoy and Sibonga Mayor Lionel Bacaltos — whose constituents most likely will benefit from the dialysis center — also showed out in support to the governor; as well as VSMMC chief Dr. Gerardo Aquino Jr. and Board Member Stanley Caminero, chair of the PB commission on public health. | Ioannes P. Arong