No hospital holiday in Pangasinan on August 15

By Danny O Sagun

Dagupan City (13 August) — No private hospital here in Pangasinan is going to go on holiday on August 15 as earlier warned by the hospital association because of the mandated slash in prices of medicines, the head of a known private hospital told a media forum Wednesday.

Dr. Viviencio Villaflor of the Villaflor Memorial Hospital said that there was no intention by his hospital and any other medical facilities in Pangasinan to join the so-called hospital holiday. “Wala kaming balak na sumama dyan,” he said.

He noted that those private hospitals which have large stocks of medicines were the ones complaining because of possible losses with the implementation of the Cheaper Medicines law.

He said the affected hospitals may have to talk to their suppliers as to measures they would adopt so they would not suffer huge losses.

Meanwhile, Villaflor urged Pangasinenses to continue their support to the Pangasinan Red Cross of which he is the chapter president. The doctor and his fellow Red Cross volunteers guested at the weekly Engkwentro sa Lenox forum.

Being a Class “B” chapter, the Pangasinan Red Cross needs to source out donations of some P7 million a year to support its lean staff and its various services.

Maybelyn Fernandez, an active Red Cross volunteer from this city, said that the amount is easily depleted especially when disaster strikes.

She also called on able-bodied individuals to donate blood to the Red Cross even as she debunked some myths on blood donation. She said that a person who has tattoo can donate blood one year after having such body mark. A woman who has given birth can also donate blood after one year, she added.

Red Cross, she pointed out, is not just about blood. “We render a lot of services,” she said citing as example the chapter’s feeding program for young school kids in the public schools. (PIA Pangasinan)