The national government allotted P500 million for the upgrade of the Governor Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital (GCGMH) in efforts to revamp its services and facilities particularly for patients with kidney ailments.

According to Dr. Yul Lopez, Office of the Governor executive assistant, the fund will be used to improve the entire hospital by acquiring new equipment such as dialysis machines.

Lopez noted that the number of kidney failure cases at the GCHMH has been growing in recent years while the hospital currently has 10 dialysis machines only.

The provincial government intends to purchase 10 more of the machines to adequately cater to the kidney patients at the hospital, which currently are at least 100 people.

Some of the dialysis machines procured by the Bohol government will also be given to hospitals in towns across the province.

Lopez said that the distribution will save kidney patients in towns from the hassle of traveling to the city for the four-hour treatment.

Governor Edgar Chatto previously vowed to fully upgrade government-run hospitals across the province before his current and final term ends in 2019.

He started to pool more resources and funneled them to his administration’s hospital modernization program after the 7.2-magnitude earthquake jolted Bohol in 2013. (Allen Doydora)