ALABEL, Sarangani -- Over a hundred differently-abled children from all parts of Sarangani and its neighboring towns and cities were assessed and pre-screened in the mobile clinic initiated by Tebow CURE Hospital together with the provincial government of Sarangani.

On June 3, doctors and nurses from Tebow CURE Hospital in Davao City, came to Sarangani to cater to and screen patients with conditions like congenital inborn hernias, bowed legs, clubfoot, knock knees, broken bones, tight tendon, limb deformities, untreated burns, cleft lip, and cleft palate.

According to Peter Cowles, executive director of Tebow CURE Hospital, Tebow CURE is a "specialty children’s surgical hospital where we treat children, and we focus on children with disabilities, and we correct those disabilities with surgeries.”

Cowles said the hospital has been doing mobile outreaches with several partners, including Sarangani, in order to find patients with such cases. They will then become potential patients who will receive treatment at the Tebow CURE Hospital.

“If we do it on our own, we can treat maybe 500 children a year, but if we have partners, we can treat over a thousand. So the partners help us find cases, transport them, and care for them pre and post-surgery,” he said.

Asma Akmad of the Provincial Governor’s Office said the clinic is “not limited to Sarangans only” but “is also open to non-Sarangans, kasi this is a blessing to us, so i-share din natin sa iba.”

According to Akmad, this is one of the initiatives of Governor Steve Solon’s Serbisyong Sarangan Community Outreach Program, established to address the needs of the Sarangans, especially the less fortunate and those in the far-flung areas who have little to no access to health and medical services.

Akmad also recognized the help of the provincial and municipal health offices, barangay health workers, rural health units, PWD focal persons, and social workers.

Akmad said Tebow CURE will primarily cater to children, but the provincial government will also “assist yung mga walk-in adults to have them assessed and puhon they will be scheduled and arranged in a special set-up with our partner hospitals dahil patuloy pa rin naman po yung surgical missions natin.”

“These are very essential and specialized na mga surgical care” that the province and its partners provide to the patients, she said.

According to Cowles, most of the cases that have been assessed “will probably have their surgeries done before the end of this year.”

He also disclosed that this is the first mobile clinic of Tebow CURE hospital since the Covid-19 outbreak. “We have not had a clinic in two and a half years, that is why we are very excited.”

“We want to serve the people here, the people want to be served. They lack the opportunity to come to our hospital so to get the opportunity, the governor’s office, and the partners need to help them,” he added.  

Cowles pointed out that Tebow CURE “is a charity hospital, which means that patients will leave the hospital with zero balance billing.” (Jori Mae R. Samillano/SARANGANI PROVINCIAL INFORMATION OFFICE)