[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’Prioritize the poor, hospitals told ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
ILOILO – “Our hospitals were built for the poor and not for the rich. Therefore, you must attend to the poor first.”
This was what Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr. told hospital personnel in the province during the inauguration of an annex building at the Ramon Duremdes District Hospital in Dumangas town on July 19.
“Let us take care of the poor. Never mind the rich, they can take care of themselves,” the governor stressed before doctors, nurses and other hospital workers.
The poor go to district hospitals because they cannot afford private hospital care.
“They are already in distress. There is no reason why we should add more to their anxiety by requiring them to really pay when they don’t have money,” said Defensor.
The provincial government has been finding ways improve hospital care in Iloilo and this includes asking for assistance from the Department of Health and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
Department of Health’s (DOH) Health Facilities Enhancement Program funded the repair and upgrading of the annex building of RDDH (P12 million). It will be made into a ward complex.
The hospital in Dumangas was established in the 1960s to address the medical needs of the poor there. It was then mayor Ramon Duremdes who urged Rep. Ricardo Ladrido to author a law establishing the hospital because his car then always doubled as an ambulance.
At the time, Duremdes was the one of the few who owned vehicles in Dumangas, said the former mayor’s grandson, Philip Duremdes Doromal.
On June 20, 1963 President Diosdado Macapagal signed Republic Act 3520 converting the town’s puericulture center into the Dumangas Emergency Hospital.
It was one of the 12 hospitals devolved to the provincial government of Iloilo following the enactment of Republic Act No. 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991.
On July 22, 2014, it was renamed Ramon Duremdes District Hospital following the approval of Provincial Ordinance No. 2014-111 which was subsequently confirmed by the DOH through License to Operate No. 06-468-14-H1-1. (Capitol News/PN)
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
