City to ink MOA with Gitagum for healthcare referral arrangement

TO provide the needed health care services to the constituents of Gitagum, the city government of Cagayan de Oro will allow patients requiring higher levels of hospital care to be referred to the city-owned J.R. Borja General Hospital (JRBGH).

This, after the 19th City Council during its regular session presided over by Vice Mayor Raineir Joaquin V. Uy enacted an ordinance authorizing City Mayor Oscar S. Moreno to enter into and sign the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with Gitagum, covering the

collaboration of the parties in establishing a referral arrangement between the JRBGH and the Gitagum Municipal Health Center, DOTS and Birthing Facility for the purpose.

In his letter to the legislative body, Mayor Moreno said the arrangement promotes the “whole-of-government approach” in which the city will provide curative and maternal care services that require medical technical expertise not available at the Gitagum municipal health center.

He said this tie-up is subject to certain conditions intended to prevent the impairment of services provided by the JRBGH to its patients from the City. It ensures that the latter will receive priority attention in their medical needs over the endorsed patients of the municipal health center, who will then be referred to the other hospitals in the city.

The collaboration by the two LGUs is consistent with the policy of the government, by which a higher-level public hospital like JRBGH provides the needed health assistance to a lower-level public health facility like a municipal health center, said Mayor Moreno.

The ordinance was sponsored by the committee on laws and rules chaired by Councilor Ian Mark Q. Nacaya.