IMAGINE bringing a seriously ill parent or child to a government hospital, only to discover that every bed is occupied.
You wait in a crowded corridor, surrounded by families facing the same predicament. Doctors and nurses are doing their best, but there are too many patients and too few facilities.
For families unable to afford private hospitals, the situation is frightening. They have nowhere else to go.
This is the reality confronting patients at two government hospitals in Samar.
Calbayog District Hospital recorded 181 inpatients on Oct. 19 despite having only 75 authorized beds — an occupancy rate of approximately 241 percent. Samar Provincial Hospital in Catbalogan City was accommodating approximately 200 to 250 patients against its authorized capacity of 100.
Behind these figures are sick people needing care and families hoping their loved ones will recover.
Mercado's response deserves recognition
Samar Gov. Sharee Ann Tan raised the emergency directly with Health Secretary Edwin Mercado.
To his credit, Mercado responded promptly. He directed DOH Eastern Visayas to arrange temporary patient accommodation, emergency medical teams and additional health care personnel. He also ordered an assessment of congestion and hospital referral arrangements.
These directives are welcome. But what happens when temporary facilities are removed and emergency teams return to their regular assignments?
Unless the underlying capacity problem is addressed, overcrowding will return.
Permanent solutions cannot wait
Governor Tan has called for permanent improvements, not emergency relief alone.
“Temporary facilities and emergency medical teams can provide much-needed relief, but we must look beyond emergency measures. We need lasting solutions — expanded hospital facilities, increased bed capacity, modern medical equipment, and enough doctors and nurses — to ensure that our people receive the quality health care they deserve and to prevent these hospital emergencies from happening again,” Tan said.
Hospitals cannot indefinitely accommodate twice their authorized patient populations without investments in facilities, equipment and staff.
Funds have already been appropriated.
The 2025 national budget allocated P140 million for the Calbayog District Hospital: P70 million for infrastructure and P70 million for medical equipment. The 2026 budget allocated another P300 million for infrastructure improvements at the Samar Provincial Hospital.
These P440 million in allocations were secured through the efforts of Samar congressional representatives Stephen Tan and Michael Tan. They appealed to Mercado on Oct. 27 to facilitate release and implementation. Governor Tan supported that appeal and offered provincial cooperation.
Yet the funds remain unreleased.
The P140 million under the 2025 budget faces a Dec. 31, 2026 validity deadline. Unless the necessary budgetary requirements are met in time, the appropriation could lapse, subject to applicable rules on reversion to the National Treasury.
Red tape must not defeat public service
Proper accounting, procurement and regulatory safeguards are essential. But there is a troubling habit in government of looking for obstacles rather than solutions.
One more study, another clearance, another round of paperwork: requirements can accumulate until an urgently needed project stalls. By the time the process ends, funding may have lapsed and the project may be shelved.
Officials should ask not merely what else may be required, but how the necessary requirements can be completed lawfully and promptly.
Imagine the tragedy: Hundreds of millions of pesos have been allocated for hospitals, yet red tape prevents patients from benefiting. Meanwhile, the sick suffer in overcrowded wards, families watch helplessly, and some are reduced to tears as they struggle to secure proper care.
Government must never allow that to happen. Public funds intended to relieve suffering must not be defeated by avoidable bureaucratic delays.
We hope that under Secretary Mercado's leadership, Samar's hospital projects will not suffer that fate. His prompt response to the immediate emergency offers reason for confidence that permanent solutions can receive equal attention.
The DOH and the Department of Budget and Management should work together to identify outstanding requirements, resolve them, and set a realistic implementation timetable.
Patients must come first
For Samar's patients, the measure of success is not the number of letters exchanged or commitments made. It is whether hospitals finally receive the facilities, equipment and health care workers they desperately need.
A mother waiting beside a sick child should not have to understand budget procedures to receive decent care.
Emergency assistance is welcome. But Samar's patients deserve something more enduring: hospitals capable of caring for them properly, not only during a crisis, but every day.