THE city government hospitals will continue to treat people who are sick but do not have the money to pay for the spiraling costs of treatment and medicines nowadays.  

Thus declared Manila Mayor Alfredo S. Lim after inaugurating the newly-concreted Yakal Street in Tondo. Every week, at least one road or street is concretized in Tondo, even as their drainages are also checked against clogging.     

The mayor lamented a report from the Commission on Audit (COA) which said that the city should use its hospital funds to treat residents and which, in effect, also questioned why non-residents are being treated for free in the city-run hospitals.

“Paano naman ang gagawin natin kung halimbawa emergency case ‘yung dumating sa ospital? We need to admit.  Puwede ba na pag sinabi nung pasyente na taga-Pasay o taga-Quezon City siya, sasabihin sa kanya na bumalik ka na lang dun sa Pasay o Quezon City?” Lim said. 

He added: “We have to admit the sick, particularly those who are truly poor, for humanitarian reasons.” 

Since his first incumbency in 1992, Lim has made it a policy to have all the sick treated for free, as he invited the residents present not to hesitate to seek help should they need  it, as he acknowledged the presence of  Ospital ng Tondo director Dr. Jun Cando, Jose Abad Santos Gen. Hospital Director Dr. Teodoro Martin and Dr. Fidel Chua of Gat Bonifacio Medical Center whom he said are always ready to extend assistance.    

Also present in the said inauguration were Manila Police District deputy director Col. Alex Gutierrez and city engineer Armand Andres and other city department heads. 

The mayor also reiterated that under his administration, no voter’s ID, barangay certificate or any proof that one is Manilan is to be demanded from a patient.     

“Ang tangi kong bilin, eksaminin `yung pasyente.  Pag may sakit, gamutin,” he said.          

Each of Manila’s six districts has a hospital of its own after Lim established the Ospital ng Tondo, Ospital ng Sampaloc and the Gat Andres Bonifacio Medical Center  in the second, fourth and first districts during his first incumbency and then the Jose Abad Santos General Hospital and the Sta. Ana Hospital during his second, for the third and sixth districts.         When he became mayor in 1992,Manila has only Ospital ng Maynila serving the residents of the city’s six districts.