By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

NO physicians will be let go when the privatization of the Commonwealth Health Center begins, according to Public Health Deputy Secretary Joseph Santos.
Santos oversees hospital administration.
He said in last week’s press briefing that the hospital’s out-patient preventive healthcare will be the first to be privatized as the Fitial administration looks for ways to ease the cash-strapped government’s financial burdens.
Public Health, Santos said, “should be finalizing the request for proposal,” and it will be announced by early next month.
He said privatization will allow the commonwealth’s only hospital to further improve its healthcare system while retaining the current staff, including physicians.
According to Santos, the privatization of CHC could provide more employment as there continues to be a need to hire more physicians.
The latest available data shows that the hospital had a total of 117,162 visits in 2005 with an average of 321 patients visiting CHC daily.
Of the total 22,146 walk-in patients, an average of 61 patients came in daily, while 172 patients fell under the “unspecified” category.
The hospital had total admissions that was close to 6,000, with an average of 16 patients admitted daily. The average stay in the hospital was 3.4 days.
A hospital staff member who requested anonymity said he is not worried about the privatization.
He said whichever part of the hospital goes to the private sector first, its personnel are likely to be absorbed by the entity that takes over.