Cebu City and its sister city, Haarlemmermeer of The Netherlands, will establish village-based emergency medical response units and health care facilities to improve its emergency services.
Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council head Nagiel Bañacia said this would also decongest the city government-run Cebu City Medical Center.
Bañacia said Barangay Mabolo had been chosen as the project pilot locality being a disaster high-risk area.
Bañacia said the city was also looking into the improvement of the present ambulance system by making sure both city and barangay emergency rescue personnel were well-trained.
Bañacia said their evaluation on the city’s ambulance services revealed a need to have proper personnel training, updated equipment and upgraded health center capacity.
Bañacia said the ambulance staff must first undergo a comprehensive training on emergency response before they could have the vehicles back.
He said Vriendschapsband Haarlemmermeer Cebu (VHC), a Dutch non-government organization, would provide funding for the training of emergency medical responders and ambulance personnel, which costs P20,000 each and would be handled by the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation (Eruf) starting in November.
Eighteen city government paramedics are being trained as emergency medical technicians at the Eruf center in Mandaue City, which is accredited by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
After the training, the city will then purchase new equipment as part of the ambulances’ upgrade.
VHC will allocate a total of 45,000 euros or about P2.3 million for the program’s entire three-year course. The city will be receiving 15,000 Euros annually from VHC.
The city will be assigning more doctors, nurses and midwives in villages to make health centers operational for 24 hours.