BACOLOD CITY – Six Negros Occidental solons have urged Health Sec. Francisco Duque III to include in its program for next year the additional budget required for the increased capacity of the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital from 400 to 1,000 as provided for under a law signed recently by President Rodrigo Duterte.
The measure, Republic Act 1141, was authored by Bacolod Cong. Greg G. Gasataya and was signed August 28 by Duterte.
The solons – Gerardo P. Valmayor, Jr. (1st District), Leo Rafael M. Cueva (2nd), Francisco “Kiko” B. Benitez (3rd), Juliet Marie De Leon Ferrer (4th), Ma. Lourdes T. Arroyo (5th), and Genaro M. Alvarez Jr. (6th) pointed out the law would help in decongesting CLMMRH, also known as the Western Visayas Regional Hospital, that is running beyond capacity on a daily basis.
The 2017 census of the hospital, they said, showed an average of 724 patients per day, beyond its 400-bed capacity.
They said the additional budget would “decongest the sole end referral tertiary hospital for poor and indigent residents of Negros Occidental.”
