Donation to hospital made huge impact, ambassador says.

It was “huge,” according to Francisco Benedicto, Philippines ambassador to Canada who made his first visit to Thunder Bay this weekend. “I think it’s really the biggest so far for Canada,” he said Saturday.

He spoke of a local group that last year gave a Philippines hospital millions of dollars worth of medical equipment that was retired from closed-down hospitals.

Shipped in eight containers, the supplies included a nuclear medicine scanner, sterilizers and a long list of other equipment. It was sent to a government-run hospital in Cebu City, located in central Philippines. Vicentesotto Memorial Medical Centre received the supplies in December.

“It was like a Christmas gift for them,” said Gabriel Mapeso, a Thunder Bay doctor who helped arrange for the shipment by Medical Equipment Modernization Opportunity, or MEMO.

MEMO is the exclusive agent for Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre to get rid of medical technology that became redundant after the hospital moved to its new building in early 2004. It also sent retired medical equipment to Cuba.

Hospitals make medical equipment last for a long time in places such as the Philippines, where almost all medical necessities are in short supply.

The Philippines’ two-tier health-care system makes it difficult for some people to afford access to medical equipment. Mapeso, a surgeon who comes from the Philippines, said many there are forced to make do with next to nothing.

Benedicto, who toured Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre on Saturday, said the receiving hospital in his country is almost 100 years old and gets thousands of patients annually.

The donation from MEMO was most welcomed, he said. “I myself visited that hospital. . . . (The donation) has really helped that hospital a lot.”

Benedicto planned to attend a fundraiser on Saturday to cover some of MEMO’s shipping costs.

The fundraiser at the Victoria Inn was arranged by operating room nurses and members of Thunder Bay’s Filipino community.

Anyone interested in supporting the effort can call MEMO at 345-6455.

MEMO also plans to send $2.1 million worth of older medical equipment from St. Joseph’s Care Group to hospitals overseas.

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