City to accommodate patients from Jasaan Hospital

THE city government of Cagayan de Oro will establish a referral arrangement with the Jasaan Municipal Hospital (JMH).

Through an ordinance, the 19 th City Council during its regular session presided over by Vice Mayor Raineir Joaquin V. Uy authorized City Mayor Oscar Moreno to enter into and sign the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the municipal government of Jasaan, Misamis Oriental for the purpose.

In a letter to the legislative body, Mayor Moreno said the city-owned J.R.Borja General Hospital (JRBGH) will serve as a referral hospital and will receive patients endorsed by the JMH.

He said the city will allow the patients of JMH requiring a higher level of hospital care to be referred to JRBGH. The latter will provide the needed curative and maternal care services, which require medical and technical expertise not available in JMH, Moreno said.

According to Mayor Moreno, the tie-up is subject to certain conditions intended to prevent the impairment of services that JRBGH provides to its own patients. It ensures that the latter will receive priority attention in their medical needs over the endorsed patients of JMH, who will then be referred to the other hospitals in the city, he added.

In response to the concern of Councilor Enrico Salcedo on the congestion of city hospital, Councilor Maria Lourdes S. Gaane said the city has the advantage of catering to patients from Jasaan since the JRBGH is now a level 1 hospital applying for a level 2 status.

She explained that the Jasaan infirmary hospital cannot accommodate services requiring higher medical attention.

Gaane said the JRBGH caters to mild cases of COVID-19 and non-COVID patients since the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) raised its operating status to code red.